What do you think about Laura Bush saying she is pro-choice and pro gay marriage?

It must have been hard for her to sit on that for 8 years, in deference to her husband’s presidency.

I am a little bit surprised and sometimes think it’s all a political ploy in case she ever wants to go into politics and that she is lying but that’s silly so I think it’s good for her to say what she’s thinking because it is an unpopular opinion and good for her.

She mentioned that she was asked about abortion when her husband had just come into office and really paused for a moment before answering the reported. She felt like if she said her honest opinion the media would have dwelled on it and disrupted her husbands ability to move onto other things. So, she basically lied. I can understand. If I remember correctly Barbara Bush is pro-choice also.

@JLeslie Yet another sad reminder about how a woman is to keep her trap shut so that her man can go further for his sake.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir I am not so negative. I think she was respecting his position as president and that the American media and public would make her opinion a big deal, when really she is not the president, so maybe her opinion should not matter in regard to policy. If she was the president I would hope her husband would support her in the same way. Obviously, she feels free to voice her opinion now, so if it was some sort of subserviant wife thing she would still not feel able to do so. I think she was just being realistic with how the country is so divided, and in some ways probably go along with the Christian right who had supported her husband rather than going along to further his career forhis sake. I mean it is her husband, his career affects her.

If I disagreed with my husband on a topic that would impact his career I would keep from voicing my opinions around his coworkers I think. Although, I don’t know if I could straight out lie. I would get around the question somehow, or say what I know my husband believes.

@JLeslie Whether the opinion of First Partner should or shouldn’t matter in regard to policy is highly debatable because we have already seen how much Michelle Obama has done in furthering some of her goals and of her beliefs when it comes to certain causes. I understand her life and ours are far apart and this is after all politics but the trend is clear.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Michelle Obama disagrees greatly with her husband on a topic that divides the country?

@JLeslie No, so it definitely helps that they’re on the same page, I agree with you but I think that if she did disagree with him, he’d know it and he’d listen and…this is all speculation, I suppose.

Well, that’s nice and all, but what @Simone_De_Beauvoir said.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Oh, I see what you are saying. I agree Obama would listen, I have no doubt, but I do not think she would make her differing opinion public. Laura Bush said that it does not cause a problem in her family that she disagrees with her husband on these things, and that she can understand his perspective also, but simply has a different opinion. She did not hide her opinion from her husband.

@JLeslie Well it is beyond my understanding how she’d be able to stand next to him (if she really is pro-choice) and have him advocate for policy that would and did negatively impact hundreds of women everywhere – I would never be married to a man like that.

Always liked her…she has her own beliefs…think it is pretty cool!

If you give it some thought, most all of our Presidents wives are independent, have strong personalities, etc.!

Michelle Obama, for example…Harvard grad and you know the President does not much influence on what she believes!

@Simone_De_Beauvoir I agree, that would be very hard for me, I don’t think I could do it when it came to the subject of choice over our bodies. I am not sure where she specifically stands on late term abortion, which is what he signed off on while in office.

I’m surprised and impressed she had the balls to speak her mind. Previously, I suspected she was a robot.

shhh..did @MissAnthrope say, balls! loll

Testicular fortitude, is that better?

@MissAnthrope @BoBo1946 I think long ago we came up with nice alternatives here lol

I think we shouldn’t believe everything we’re told. She wants to sell that book.

It just confirms for me that Laura was always smarter than George.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir got’cha…way back then, can you invision two Java men standing by a large dinosaur, and some woman saying, “those guys have balls!” Had to start somewhere…funny how these sayings have come down through the years and we have no idea how some of this “stuff” evolved.

I think good for her…

Another traitor putting her own selfish interests above those of others. Fuck her. Too little, too late.

Pretty sweet.

I think it’s damned annoying that she acted like a Stepford wife for 8 years when maybe she could have tried to influence her husband back then when it might have meant something. Who cares now what she believes?

The gay marriage thing shocks me a bit- but the pro-choice? Nope. Most people I’ve ever met/talked to are pro-choice when it all gets boiled down. Reminds me of my dear Grandmother- she said that eventually she had lived long enough to learn that most differences didn’t mean a damn thing.

I am pro choice only during the first trimester… and pro gay marriage.

I always thought she was on something when she was in public, like she wasn’t quite there, you know?

Well, what difference does her saying this make now? As far as I’m concerned, she’s a private citizen (who happens to have some fame) making her opinions known. I had no idea she was hawking a book, though. Maybe I’ll have more of an opinion on her if/when she divorces Georgie.

I think Laura Bush is full of shit. If she really felt this way, why didn’t she go public when her dumb assed husband was in the White House? At best she is a self serving coward.

Did she? (Link, please?) I always thought all the brains of that outfit were on the distaff side. But breaking through the hypocrisy with a little honesty would have done a lot more good a few years ago.

This does make me wonder if his own true personal opinion is closer to hers and if in public he did the same as she—cynically adopting the position calculated to be the most politically divisive and to win the most favor with the blind followers he was courting.

@jeruba I saw her on Larry king talking about it. I’ll try to find a link. I do think that maybe he is probably understanding of her position, but according to her he is still on the side of being against the two things, but I would guess he might have not made it political if everyone else wasn’t. He is more like the puppet than her in my opinion. Although, from all reports he is a very black and white person, no grey area, so maybe we are giving him too much credit.

@janbb Maybe acting like a Stepford wife is her way of saying no comment.

@Jeruba http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtNabdDx_mU

i knew she is a democrat

@Silhouette now, tell us how you really feel girl! loll

@Silhouette I don’t see why it makes her a coward. Her husband was elected on the issues he stood for, who is she to contradict that while he is president. I guess if people actually think they are voting for the couple (which I completely disagree with, because it annoys me to no end that a person needs to be married, or parade their children around to become president) then it might matter. She takes the role of supportive wife it seems, and that is what people voted for, if indeed they care about the “couple,” as much as I will never understand why anyone voted for him, TWO times. It gives me a headache thinking about it. But, that is a different topic.

@JLeslie her responsibility was to speak her truth, she has been asked these questions before and she always gave vague, noncommittal answers. She lacks the courage of her convictions and because she does, I for one don’t give a hoot what lily livered Laura thinks.

must be a full moon out…oh well, let the “Blue Cat ramble!

Oh, has she?

I wish I could be happy about this (and in a sense I am; always good to see that people you normally peg as conservatives can break away from the party line when it comes to social issues), but it smacks of a PR ploy. I understand why she might’ve wanted to stay quiet about it during her husband’s presidency—it would have compromised his image and standing with the Republican base. But Bush has worked tirelessly and not in a good way against abortion. Does she realize what her husband has done to the pro-choice movement?

If you believe every woman has the right to make that decision for herself, you could at least push back a little against your spouse.

Big George admitted after his presidency that he was pro-abortion. Dubyah may feel the same way. That would make them hypocrites if not downright political whores to the Christian right, But Laura Bush was not and should not have been forced into betraying her husband during his presidency, just as a woman is not forced to betray her husband in a court trial, and she did not.

Does the same hold true for the husband in a court of law?

@anartist In court the law covers spouses, it is not gender related.

Being that Laura Bush is a Librarian, and in my experience, maybe about ½ of one percent of Librarians are Conservative, I’m not surprised she holds this view. What surprises me is what she saw in George, but it’s my understanding that this was one of those marriages that was dictated more by what the parents wanted for their country club brats than it was about two people who actually loved each other. I suspect they are both political whores for whom power is a greater draw than principle.

If Laura Bush did in fact express those opinions, then that confirms my perception that she was much smarter than former President George W. Chimp.

To borrow her own words, the hypocrite can get fucked.

hmmm… the skip ahead function doesn’t seem to work. Skip ahead to 8:47 if you are so inclined.

@kevbo LOL. She has no shame, and no integrity. Just hawking her book.

Personally i’m skeptical of anyone who would agree with every issue on the basis of their political parties. I think many people don’t want to be seen as “liberal” or they care what other people think so they play the “i’m a republican” game so i think so and so on these issues and vice versa (People like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter and Elisabeth Hasselbeck are great example of this).

To me gun control, abortion, raising the minimum wage, labor rights, enviroment, etc have nothing to do with each other but yet i find so many people (like mindless robots) agree on every issue they are supposed to according to their own political party beliefs. Does this mean if i oppose gun control, affirmative action that i can’t support raising the minumum wage, labor rights and helping the enviroment? Same thing here, i respect Laura Bush or anyone for that matter who has the abilty to think for themselves even if i don’t like them as president, president’s wife, etc.