Bush: as he rides his bike: "You can do it! Come on!"

This week Bush broke from his usual long summer vacation at his Crawford, Texas, homestead for a press conference and meetings in Washington. The week before, while the Lebanon war was still raging, Bush invited Reuters correspondent Steve Holland to join him on an hour and a half bicycle ride in 100-degree heat. (Bush holds contests for his staff at Crawford to belong to his "100-Degree Club." When the temperature hits 100 degrees, they run three miles while the president rides his bike alongside them, urging them to run faster. "You can do it! Come on!" At the end, they receive T-shirts and pose for pictures with Bush.) "Bush does not ride quietly, constantly shouting out in his Texas twang the names of trees and geographic features and yelling at himself to pedal faster," Holland wrote. As Bush rode up a hill, leading an entourage of sweating Secret Service agents and the reporter, he shouted to no one in particular: "Air assault!"


-- By Sidney Blumenthal


from Holland above;

http://today.reuters.co.uk/misc/PrinterFriendlyPopup.aspx?type=reutersEdge&storyID=2006-08-07T080835Z_01_NOA729254_RTRUKOC_0_WITNESS-BUSH.xml





........Standing in the shade of a tree while one of his dogs, Miss Beazley, barked, Bush said he does not try to think out solutions to world problems while riding, instead using the rides to clear his head.

"I push it away. On single track you generally have to stay focused on the trail. And as you know these aren't leisurely rides, these aren't nature rides," Bush said.

"They're fun exercise rides, and I try to maximize the time available and at the same time stay fit. In my case I know I need to be spiritually fit as well as physically fit in order to do this job."

Bush said he spent the previous evening thinking about the Middle East while sitting on the porch of his ranchhouse waiting on first lady Laura Bush to arrive........

.. must be hard work and much more important than dealing with those other trivial problems like war, debt, the economy, and crushing the poor, working, and middle classes.

Sue

or at anytime.

<Snip>...Bush, at 60, showing no signs of slowing
Mon Aug 7, 2006 9:08 AM BST

His body is still going but his little brain is dead!!

"They're fun exercise rides, and I try to maximize the time available and at the same time stay fit. In my case I know I need to be spiritually fit as well as physically fit in order to do this job."

Ha, notice he says nothing about intellectual fitness.

Clearing his head, huh? It couldn't be much clearer; nothing but air.

He shouts out to no one in particular, "Air assault!" Horrifying. Is he a crazy person or an asshole?

a GOODidea--then I remembered it was the chimp.

SANE people do not exercise in 100 degree heat. SANE people do not ride their bikes in 100 degree heat, urging others to run in that heat. but then, we are all pretty sure that chimp and his entourage are NOT sane.

When I lived in Houston, eons ago, I found a certain grim amusement in the runners who dropped dead, being silly enough to run in the noonday heat and humidity. so much for staying fit.

Forcing your staff to run with you could count as harassment, given the conditions.

but we all know that it's nothing more than a prop. pity the media doesn't refer to it that way.

Wonder what he does for the rest of the ride?