BushQuotes!

Chapter 3, page 31: "I love campaigning, especially in small-town Texas. I enjoy meeting people and shaking hands and listening to their stories about their lives. I don't particularly like raising money, although it's a necessary part of a campaign, especially against a well-funded incumbent. In the early days, it was tough going, person to person, one individual at a time. No one gave me much of a fighting chance, and not many people want to put money into what they suspect will be a losing cause. I'll never forget going to see Don Carter, a wonderful man who was the owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team. I gave him my pitch, talked about why I was running and how I wanted to change Texas. An hour later, he pulled out a checkbook and said, 'I'd like to help you.' He wrote the check, handed it to me, and said, 'Good luck, son.' There are no limits on campaign contributions from individuals for state elections in Texas, and Don is a wealthy man. From watching him write upside down, from across the desk, I thought the check said $10,000. But as I walked out the door, I looked down and saw it was actually $100,000. I had to restrain myself, because I felt like jumping over the desk to hug Don Carter. I told him, 'I'm honored, I'm humbled, I'll work to always make you proud.' To this day, Don Carter has never asked me for one thing; in fact, when I called to ask him to bring his family and grandkids down to Austin to visit and have lunch, I practically had to beg him to come."

First of all, I just want to note that is actually one paragraph in the book. And it's even longer than that—I started in its middle. Paragraph breaks are for sissies!

Secondly: Oh the humanity! I can't even imagine how terrible it must be to go "person to person" begging for $100,000 checks to fund your political career.

Privilege and Balls of Cash.

[From George Bush's A Charge to Keep, gifted to me by Deeky, because he hates me. In the US, all people who plan to run for president write a shitty book. (Some are less shitty than others, by which I mean the Democrats' books.) A Charge to Keep was George W. Bush's shitty I-wanna-be-president book, published in 1999. I am blogging one random quote per page every day until I have either made my way through the book or lost it behind a couch.]