PeterDavid.net

Just wondering, but are you trying pecificly to be politicaly crass?

I'm sorry, but it just sounded like your trying to say Laura is less memorable, and thus less important, becuase we get Barbra mixed up with Laura.

I'm not trying to be insulting, but it sounds like your trying to be insulting to Laura Bush. Maybe I'm wrong. I was just wondering.

Actually, Laura first popped into my head, since isn't Sr. usually referred to as George HW Bush?

I realize there's no way to verify this but I did think "Laura"...then started to second guess my self/wonder what the punch-line was going to be...thought it would be one of those "Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?" questions...

C'mon Surges, not since John ( and John Q.) Adams have we had this come up.

It sounds like you're a hyper-republican looking for an excuse to bash anything you perceive as anti-Dumbya...

How many of you were immediately able to recall "Laura" without having to think about it?

While I immediately said Laura, I did say it as I looked back to see if it was George W. or H.W. Bush. I have this knack for quick answers but to the wrong questions.It was always Gerald Ford's wife name that I had trouble with during his term/s. She fixed that later with the opening of the rehab center.

I said Laura. But then, I also knew who the leaders of Chechnya, India, Pakistan, and Taiwan were in 1999, so maybe I'm not representative.

I thought Laura.

I guess now we'll hear about how virtuous Hillary is and how evil Laura freakin'Bush is and how Laura stole the election and can't wait to send our boys off to war all giddy over oil.

The woman has comported herself with class and dignity. So you don't like W. We get it. If you're going to imply that she is less than first lady material, at least go ahead and spit it out as to why.

Hillary was class-A material and Laura is a faker to the throne. That's rich. And pathetic.

Read too much in much, Jim?

I knew it was Laura immediatly - thanks to watching "That's my Bush".

"One of these days, Laura, wham bham - straight to the moon"

I answered (well, in my head) "Laura", too.

Oh, and Yossi:

I knew it was Laura immediatly - thanks to watching "That's my Bush".

"One of these days, Laura, wham bham - straight to the moon"

The line from That's My Bush was actually, "One of these days, Laura, I'm going to punch you in the face!" (The latter part said along with the audience, playing off the "straight to the moon" catch phrase thing).

Alan, I knew it was some take on th Honeymooners, but couldn't remembr the exact phrasing. Thanks for the clearup.

On seeing the question, I did a quick check to make sure it was Dubya as opposed to his father and immediately thought "Laura".

But then, as Peter knows, I'm not a good baseline for this sort of factoid knowledge tests. :-)

Lessee, last N first ladies:

Laura, Hillary, Barbara, Nancy, Rosalyn, Betty, Pat, Lady Bird, Jackie, Mamie, Bess, Eleanor...damn, stuck on Mrs. Hoover.

I, too, said Laura. And I, too, remembered it most from "that's My Bush," since most of the current politics sites I go to refer to her as "Pickles" for some odd reason.

Laura. It was easy. But the fact that I remembered this in no way means that I find her more memorable than anyone else, nor would I conclude that failure to remember her would mean the converse.

Laura Rodham Bush

;^)

Hooper

I thought of Laura instantly...but then, my obsession with modern politics is a bit outside the norm for us twenty-somethings.

Pickles? How strange...

I said Laura -- and like a couple of you, it was the "That's My Bush" first lady that I locked on.

But I'm a little dissappointed. With how this post was set up, I was prepared for an "Everything You Know is WRONG" secret origin for Laura Bush.

Maybe it has something to do with radioactive pickles...

Rob

I instantly thought Laura. And not because of any show or anything. Simply because PAD said George W. Bush. If he had said George Bush, I might have thought Barbara.

PAD

Just out of curiousity, why were you wondering about that?

Do i get 1/2 credit if I said Texas?

I admit, I thought Barbara. But then, I'm Canadian.

Also she hasn't (yet) had the media impact that Babs, Hillary and Nancy had.

Of course I wouldn't be able to tell you the name of Jimmy Carter's wife.

Or even most of the "First Ladies" of Canada.

Maybe I'm just stating the obvious, but I interpreted this question to be an attack on the current incompetent Bush administration by pointing out how similar it is to the previous one, not a critisism of Laura Bush herself.

Laura.

That wasn't so hard.

What's the point of the question?

Laura.

"... is the face in the misty light

Footsteps that you hear down the hall

A laugh that floats on a summer night

That you can never quite recall..."

kdb

Who is Laura?

I'll take Confusing Poilitcal Questions for $300, Alex.

I too thought "Laura," and am also curious as to what your little "quiz" Peter is about.

Same here. Will you be telling us why you asked, Peter?

I thought 'Laura' immediately also.

Brad

Laura, immediately. Then wondered if maybe that's a daughter.

You're not one to take casual cheap shots at politicians, so I'm wondering too: What's your agenda here, Peter? What nefarious reason do you have for asking this question? What IS the relationship between Gerald Ford and Leslie King?

Who ate my chocolate bunny?

-Paul

Laura. Though I did read the question a second time to make sure you said "George W. Bush," not "George H.W. Bush" or just "George Bush."

Is this just a memory quiz, since there have been two Bushes to occupy the Oval Office? Did PAD lose a bar bet at the convention? Or was this a test to see how quickly the Republican visitors to this forum would theorize that asking the question was a political act? :)

I didn't even know he was married(that's a lie I knew but didn't care)

I'm from New Zealand where our Prime Minister Is Helen Clark and the one before was Jenny Shipley.

Does a first lady actually do anything?

I think I see the point here.

Laura Bush hasn't been as active as other First Ladies and, at least to me, a bit of a cypher personality-wise.

Is this wat you are getting at here Peter?

Or in English...WHAT you are getting at? :-)

Man, I *love* when people read things into something I say.

It's very simple: Kathleen looked up this afternoon, having drawn a blank in casual thought, and asked, "What's the name of Bush's wife?"

And my first thought was "Barbara," and then realized, No, wait, that's his mother. And I couldn't call it to memory until I, too, pulled up the line from "That's My Bush."

The fact that Laura Bush is so little in the news has, in my opinion, nothing to do with anything other than that terrorism, Iraq, and North Korea are so much *in* the news. I'm sure she's perfectly active; it's just not getting attention.

And because she's not getting attention, I actually had to reach back to a crappy sitcome on "Comedy Central" to recall her name. Which I found interesting, mostly because I find the entire process of memory interesting.

So I posted my "quick quiz" and was intrigued to find that, yes, several other people had to go through the exact process I did.

There's nothing particularly deep about it beyond that.

PAD

Blank.

Whats-her-name.

No idea.

So what?

I don't think he's got a dog or cat either. almost like Maime, eh?

I too am Canadian, so I don't have a clue! On another subject entirely, I also don't like it how some Canadians insult Americans for knowing nothing about Canada, even though most of you know enough. Heck, I barely know anything about the US. All I know is that your news is filled with violence and nothing else (or it seems that way anyways).

*Sigh*

When will we become a world government?

Of course it's Laura.

She killed a guy (ex-boyfriend, I think) back in high school, when she ran a stop sign.

Peter, if you're interested in memory, may I suggest a great book I'm reading right now. It's called "A User's Guide to the Brain," by John J. Ratey, M.D. It's got all sorts of great stuff about how we process perceptions and turn them into memories and then recall them. Oddly, movement and the motor cortex seem to have a lot more to do with cognition and consciousness than you might think.

Oh, yeah. I immediately thought Laura, but only because the other Bush is irrelevant, rather than a current weasel.

I couldn't think of her name at all. I never hear about her, and I don't think much about Bush's family life.

sorry.

I'm Canadian too, but I still knew her name is Laura.

Barbara? Pfft! Everyone knows that's his grandmother!

:)

Well, Laura immediately came to mind. (Probably faster than 'W' could have come up with it, too.)

But if things keep going in an Ashcroftian direction, she may as well get it over with early and change it to Eva.

Funny thing: Last year, I took a group of eight students to England and Scotland during our spring break. One evening in Edinborough, one of the girls was knocked unconscious by a 6'5" guy in a skeleton costume (longer story). She was taken to the emergency room, and I was with her. She was conscious, but to check her coherence, the nurse asked, "What day is it, Emily?" She replied, "Monday." (Which was correct and amazing to me, since we'd been traveling for several days and I didn't know what day it was.) Then, the nursed asked this seventeen-year-old, rural American girl, "Who's the Prime Minister?" Emily giggled and said, "Normally, I don't think I'd know this, but it's Tony Blair." I cracked up, as did the nurse, who had quickly deduced that Emily was, indeed, an American patient.

The question reminded me of a "cognitive" test that a psychiatrist in East Tennessee used in a lot of workers' compensation lawsuits I defended when I lived there. One of the questions was to name as many presidents as you could, in reverse order, starting with Clinton (who was still in office then). Literally everyone who took the test left George HW Bush out. Every single test result I read went directly from Clinton to Reagan, which I found fascinating.

I don't know if that's a comment on Bush or people from East Tennessee but I also find it fascinating that the psychiatrist in question moved to Arizona to work at a cryogenics facility after his Tennessee license was suspended, which makes me wonder about the test itself.

I couldn't recall W's wife's name, but I did remeber his dog is called Barney!

I immediately said, "Laura," but not because I'm eidetic or anything.

Rather, she sprang to mind because she has, to me, been a great disappointment.

Historically--at least since Dolley Madison, the position of First Lady has been that of one of the if not THE most public and publicized woman in America--at least, who isn't an anchorwoman, an actress, a scantily-clad "singer," or a woman who thinks making your own tiles and insider tradings are Good Things.

And in fact, during the campaign, Laura Bush was touted as her own woman, a powerful education activist, and a strong and feisty former schoolteacher who was more than ready to stand up to her powerful husband. Hell, we were told, she's even for abortion rights, despite what George may believe!

This was important, during the campaign; as Bush tried to sell himself as a purveyor of "compassionate conservatism," and a new breed of Republican, Laura's differentness was hyped as indicative of this new Republican style.

And what has she done in more than two years? Visited a couple schools. Smiled on camera a couple times. I mean, Lynne Cheney's gotten more screen time than Laura, as have the Bush kids!

Hillary was known for--well, for being Hillary. Barbara was known for wearing pearls, writing books with her dog, and generally being a brassy, classy lady. Nacy ... well, Nancy was known for "Just Say No," "borrowing" dresses worth thousands, snubbing Raisa Gorbachev, conceiving her first child with Ronnie out of wedlock, astrology, and a lot of other bad habits. Rosalind Carter was an advocate for the mentally ill and was prone to making feminist statements to the press. Betty Ford was known for breast cancer and addictions, Pat Nixon for wearing an "honest Republican cloth coat," Lady Bird Johnson for her highway beautification programs, Jackie for smiling winsomely and being beautiful even in a pillbox hat.

Mamie and Bess were the last of the old-style, quiet First Ladies--neither really wanted to be in the White House and in the role of First Lady all that much, and it showed; neither was known for much at all.

Eleanor Roosevelt was the first of the modern First Ladies, with a grueling schedule and a great number of public works, both of which seem to overshadow even those of many Presidents. But even SHE wasn't the first First to realize the power the office gave her, however honorary that office may have been: Edith Bolling Wilson, wife of Woodrow Wilson (his Second First Lady; his first wife died soon after he took office), it has been revealed, almost assumed the duties of President when a 1919 stroke left Wilson almost unable to govern. She sat in for him in Cabinet meetings and acted as "steward" (her own term) of the Presidency, selecting what matters would get her bedridden and partially-paralyzed husband's attention.

But what all these women, even the lightweights, have shared is a ready position in the public eye. Almost daily, one could as easily read a newspaper or magazine article about the women of the White House as the men.

But Laura Bush has all but disappeared. The only work of hers which springs to mind is the annual National Book Festival. To me, this particular effort has an inauspicious ring to it: Barbara Bush also selected literacy as her pet theme, as under her husband--the self-termed "education President"--the nation's education system suffered cuts in both funding and quality.

In an eerie coincidence, Bush fili publicized his "No Children Left Behind" act to hell and back, while his stated desire to reduce federal funding to failing schools virtually guarantees that the children currently IN those schools will, indeed, be "left behind".

And where's the concern from the former schoolteacher?

Where IS Laura?

(First one who says, "in an undisclosed secret location with Dick Cheney" gets a slapping.)

I didn't know. Mind you, I'm a Brit.

The surprising thing is the poster above who listed the last N First Ladies. I knew lots of them.

I didn't remember Rosalyn Carter, or Bess...thingy. (Well, that's where I get to my gap in my gap in US Presidents)

So I tried the same with my own country.

Cherie Blair, Norma Major, Dennis Thatcher... that's as far as I got. Mind you, that takes us back over the last 24 years, back to when I was fast approaching my 4th birthday, so I guess it's not that bad... until I compare it with the above.

Maybe Prime Minister's wives (Husbands in Dennis Thatcher's case) do less than First Ladies.

Cherie Blair is most famous because she's still a lawyer, Norma Major... I don't remember her doing much, but then again I guess she didn't do too much for John either, otherwise he wouldn't have slept with Edwina Currie... and Dennis Thatcher (If I recall) was a bit of a drinker... but that's it.

I feel so very ignorant right now...

Funnily enough, I can recall the spouses of several US presidents or UK PMs (if not immediately off hand), but not of Dutch PMs. Which is weird, being Dutch. I guess over here they're allowed something of a private life. ;)

Strange question... But I did recall the answer without difficulty. Not because I drew upon memories from a sitcom, but because I'm basically anti-republican (not the same thing as being a democrat). Every time that I saw the woman's face in the news, I would cringe. She always had this disturbing look that just bothered me. Not that the woman's ugly or such, but she always looked... I dunno... twitchy.

Now, if asked about the significant other of George H. W. Bush, I would have recalled Barbara from what was possibly the greatest episode of THE SIMPSONS. In it, George The Elder and Barbara move in across the street from Homer and his clan. Barbara and George end up playing Martha and Mr. Wilson to Bart's Dennis the Menace, and the whole episode culminated in one of the greatest slugfests ever portrayed on the tube, where Homer and Bush, after pulling a series of pranks on each other, and Bush disciplining Bart for accidently shredding his memoirs, went after each other in the connecting sewer beneath their homes. In a move that could only be done in a cartoon, Homer ended up running up the side of the sewer wall, stopping when reaching the ceiling and dropping on the ex-president, while issuing a classic Homer cry of fury/frustration.

Ah...

Whether it be Barbara or Laura Bush, it's a pretty easy guess, I would figure.

I think Laura has been avoiding public comments to the media because she is a politically savy person. In the past she has offered up opinions that contradicted her husband's on key Republican issues. At a time that Bush's popularity numbers are considered way important she's avoiding saying anything that might cut into them. And out of sight out of mind.

Just my opinion...

I hit Laura after a second.

Never even though of Barbara until you mentioned it.

And I was an avid political follower during the Bush/Dukakis and Bush/Clinton match-ups.

Go figure.

You know, it would be nice for once if every conservative, in defense of George W. or Laura, didn't have to invoke the "evil" Clinton regime and how anyone who doesn't like the Bushes must therefore be completely obsessed with the Clintons. I'll have you know that I don't particularly care for either couple. And I'm hoping that sometime soon Bush lovers will quit blaming every single problem the country has on Clinton. When will anything be Bush's fault? Let's say he's reelected. On Jan. 19th, 2009, the day before the president after him is inaugurated, will they still be blaming Bill? Or will George finally have some accountability?

Uhm...Barbara W.? Why not? ;-)

Huh. I thought of "Laura" for the most obvious reason. I kinda like her, though I sometimes wonder while she married a spoiled goof. Ah well, love is blind.

I blanked. I could picture her face and hear her voice but the name escaped me. Not a big deal. I forget my name if I don't use it everyday.

Interesting take on the First Lady's duties. Tradition may give her some, but by no means is she required to do anything. It's her husband who won the election, not her (feel free, go ahead, straight-lines-R-Us).

I find it refreshing that the First Lady doesn't have to pipe up and assault us through the media every ten seconds.

I immediately thought "Barbara",

then pondered about 5 seconds and thought..no, it's ummm...Laura.

Interesting,

I guess that means that she's doing a good job of staying off the radar.

Laura Bush was a librarian, not a schoolteacher. [Which is why I knew her name immediately]

Adam Busch?

Some of you people are so sad.

I thought Barbara. But I'm Canadian. :)

Yolande

OK, politicians and names.

In an earlier post, I mentioned Leslie King. Anyone know what most of us call him?

As far as I know, he's the ONLY President of the United States to hold office under an assumed name.

Nothing nefarious, he just took another name when he was young.

No fair Googling...

-Paul

Answer to Paul's question -- Gerald Ford.

Why I don't particularly care for Laura Bush -- she was a librarian, she loves to read and yet she married a man is who is aliterate (can read but doesn't care to) and who has no curiousity about the larger world.

Had no idea Gerald Ford was not his given name. Interesting....

Although, there was another President who took office under a different name from the one he was born with. Ulysses Simpson Grant was not born with that name. I don't remember what his birth name was but I think his first name was originally Hiram.

I KNOW HER NAME IS LAURA, BUT ONLY BECAUSE OF COMEDY CENTRAL'S "THAT'S MY BUSH". FUNNY SHOW, TOO BAD ALL OF THE GOOD ONE'S ARE CANCELLED.

I got it right off. Of course I went to GWB's inauguration and was very impressed with the two to them as a couple. His tie matched her dress. I saw a couple who truly loved each other and made a great team. I think that they must really support each other well.

Let the ripping of me begin...