Bill Maher: 'Bush Had the Thinnest Résumé for President Anyone Had Ever Seen'

Noel Sheppard
March 5th, 2011 12:18 PM
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Bill Maher said Friday that George W. Bush when he first ran for president had the "thinnest résumé anyone had ever seen."

Such happened on HBO's "Real Time" during an interview with author T.C. Boyle (video follows with transcript and commentary):

BILL MAHER: But people like confidence, don't they? I mean, that is part of the attraction there.

T.C. BOYLE, AUTHOR: Well, they have charisma.

MAHER: It doesn't matter what you're saying. I mean, obviously, Charlie [Sheen] is saying crazy stuff. It’s the fact that he's so confident in what he's saying. Reminds me of George Bush. George Bush was like that. When George Bush ran for president he had the thinnest résumé anyone had ever seen. He was just the ne'er-do-well son of a, of a, you know, guy who had been president. And, but he acted like he owned the f--king world.

BOYLE: It gets worse. It gets worse. I had to explain American foreign policy to audiences in Germany and France for eight years.

MAHER: Why?

BOYCE: Well because everybody's saying, “This is your president. What do you want from him? Who are you?”

MAHER: Oh, I see.

BOYLE: You know, and so on. And it was, it was humiliating.

MAHER: Right.

So how would one explain America's foreign policy to audiences in Germany and France today?

We've got a president that was given the Nobel Peace Prize less than nine months in office having accomplished absolutely nothing, and now less than two years later, parts of the Middle East and Africa are exploding in violence.

The world today is in a more tenuous condition than it has been since the end of the Cold War, and the current White House resident seems totally clueless.

As for the previous president's résumé, he was twice elected governor of our nation's second most populated state. Prior to that point, Bush:

  • Was managing general partner of the Texas Rangers for five years
  • Assisted in running his father's re-election campaign in 1992
  • Was a campaign advisor and media liaison for his father's first presidential campaign in 1988
  • Created Arbusto Energy company which later merged with Spectrum 7 eventually becoming Harken Energy which he served on the Board of Directors
  • Was a member of the Texas Air National Guard
  • Graduated with a BA from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard Business School

Is going to Harvard and Yale, creating an oil company, and being twice elected governor of our nation's second most populated state a "thin résumé?"

If it is, our current president's curriculum vitae is emaciated by comparison:

  • U.S. Senator 2005 through 2008
  • Illinois State Senator 1997 through 2004
  • Lectured at University of Chicago Law School 1991 through 2004
  • Harvard Law School graduate 1991
  • Community organizer 1985 through 1988
  • Graduated with a BA from Columbia University in 1983

As it pertains to the highest office in the land, which résumé looks thinner to you?