Bush: Faith Helped Me Overcome "Addiction"

[bemildred]

Source: CBS/AP

(AP) President Bush on Tuesday referred to his former struggles with alcohol as an "addiction," a blunt characterization of his less disciplined adult days before a reliance on faith help him turn his life around.

"Addiction is hard to overcome," Mr. Bush said in speaking at a faith-based center that helps former prisoners get job training and other help.

"As you might remember, I drank too much at one time in my life," Mr. Bush said. "I understand faith-based programs. I understand that sometimes you can find the inspiration from a higher power to solve an addiction problem."

Increasingly, Mr. Bush has reflected in candid terms about his days of drinking. Last month, he told some young recovering addicts to stick with their fight against drugs and cited his own experiences with alcohol years ago. He said then that "addiction competes for your affection ... you fall in love with alcohol."

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/29/national/main3767066.shtml?source=RSSattr=Politics_3767066

[maddezmom]

1. he needs to pray a bit more

from the looks of him or maybe he's just in love with himself so there is no more competition. :hi:

[grytpype]

2. It's a good think he stopped drinking, otherwise he would be too retarded to be president.

[lurky]

7. Wow!

He's about to melt into the podium there!

BTW, has anyone ever figured out what's up with the drooping on the left side of his face? Bell's palsy? Stroke?

[Adsos Letter]

16. I don't know...but he seems to be slurring his words

a lot more than he did in 2000...his whole manner of speaking is different.

I am not convinced it is alcohol...could be reaction to some kind of anxiolitic or anti-depressant or (other), or some health issue they aren't telling us about...

[lurky]

19. The square thing on his back could be a heart

defibrillator, according to some speculation. He wasn't just wearing it at the debates. There are other pictures with it:

[JuniperLea]

21. Ever know anyone with one?

I've known two, and two others who had open heart surgery. Without exception, the personalities of all of them changed. Two of them got so mean I refused to be around them anymore. Only one, my dear grandmother, got sweeter:)

[lurky]

22. No I haven't

I bet you're right though. Between the trauma and then the medication they put someone on, it would have to change them. I'm glad your grandmother got sweeter! I guess her true colors came to the front? :)

[JuniperLea]

26. I like to think of it that way:)

The worst one was my veterinarian... he was rough with my dog, and my dog barked at him... not bit, not snipped, just barked... the vet said we should take him out into a field and beat him with a stick until he died... in front of my three kids, all under the age of 12. Needless to say, we never went to that vet again. I'd been taking my animals to him since I was a kid. Sicko... but you're right, the trauma, drugs, etc. Not to mention extended periods of time under anesthesia.

[Thor_MN]

41. If doubledip needed a defib/cardioverter, he have a gold plated one implanted on his chest.

There's no way he would be wearing a huge device on his back. Whatever * is hiding under his shirt, it is not a heart device - a MASSIVE device these days would be about 2.5 inches in diameter and 3/8th of an inch thick.

[Virginia Dare]

24. There was a pic of him last night..

trying to wink at somebody in the audience. All he could manage was a squint.

[lurky]

27. I don't know what I would do if Bush winked at me...

the idea is just so disturbing I don't want to think about it.

[L0oniX]

17. Uhm ...he is too retarded to be president.

[Virginia Dare]

3. Too bad it didn't do anything for the stupidity...n/t

[JuniperLea]

20. Seriously!! Too bad his drinking wasn't selective...

In the brain cells it killed!

[fascisthunter]

4. Spoken Like a True Dry Drunk!

You can stick your head in that pseudo religious shit all you want buddy, but until you get help for yourself, you will NEVER beat your illness.

[madrchsod]

11. i worked with a guy who was a dry drunk

what an asshole...but i knew what he was and how to avoid him...i bet his liver is shot.

[fascisthunter]

12. Dry Drunks are Extremely Hard to Deal with

they usually vote Republican too....

[Warpy]

5. He still seems to think he can drink

and that Jebus will help him control it, if the deterioration in his central nervous system is anything to go by, as well as his disgraceful appearance at the 2006 G-8.

He's only fooling himself. He's going to fool himself right into a grave.

It's just not going to be a quick process.

[belpejic]

6. I'm willing to cut him some slack on this

I never thought I'd be willing to cut the chimp some slack on anything, but none of us really know what's going on here. He talks about a higher power, and if he's found that (whatever it is) and found that his relationship with his HP keeps him sober then great. That's exactly what an addict should do, and good for him. Alcohol is a drug. Period.

[Alexander]

14. Bushie's still drinking, his sobriety is a well-known myth.

Bush has been videoed and photographed not only drinking alcohol, but flat out drunk since 1986, when he claimed to have quit the bottle.

[Virginia Dare]

23. Well I for one remain a firm cynic..

both about his sobriety and his piety.

[Thor_MN]

42. You can find his higher power too. Just look in your wallet and you will see his god.

(assuming, of course, that * and his policies have not drained you dry)

*'s god is even multidenominational. Ones, Fives, Tens, Twenties, Fifties and Hundreds.

[Arugula Latte]

8. From brain addled with drugs/alcohol to brain addled with "faith."

Delusion plays a big role in both things.

[leftchick]

9. I believe his pretzel incident was caused by alcohol consumption

At least that is what I read in the latest Vanity Fair. It is interesting how the M$M ignores that little factoid.

[YDogg]

10. so, when will he come to terms with his other drug use?

:shrug:

[rateyes]

13. He didn't overcome his addiction...

he just traded one for another one.

[fshrink]

30. Exactly. nt

[melody]

15. Yeah, that's why he stumbles and mumbles like Dipso the Clown

He ain't drinkin' Gatorade.

[Skittles]

18. now he is addicted to f***ing America

and the world

[dchill]

25. I agree with Alice Cooper...

who says the only way to overcome an addiction is to replace it with another. With Alice, it was golf for alcohol. With W., it may have been Jayzuz, it may have been cocaine, or it may be that he still drinks like a fish, and is just addicted to lying.

[Virginia Dare]

28. I think he tried exercise...

which is why he's obsessed with his bike riding. After a while that didn't work either though, especially when the reality of how stressful prezidentin could be.

[dchill]

29. It's HARD WORK!

:)

[AndyTiedye]

36. Bush** is Addicted to Death and Destruction

He is happiest when starting a war.

[libbygurl]

31. I still think he should've stayed drunk and not found a new addiction (religion), and we...

...very likely wouldn't have had the mess of the last 7 years.

[Arugula Latte]

45. Or if Poppy had kept it zipped and Babs had had years of nightly "headaches"

that would have been the eventual end of the Bush Family Scourge Upon the Nation.

Ah, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride ... :)

[Ian David]

32. President Blowmonkey almost comes clean. n/t

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

33. Bush's faith

is also what led him to invade Iraq.

[ToughLuck]

34. Who cares....like we didn't know he was an alcoholic

[GoddessOfGuinness]

35. So now he's addicted to power,too.

The world was better off when he was just doing drugs.

[meow2u3]

37. Bush is full of Bushit

He simply traded one addiction (alcohol) for another (religious addiction). He doesn't fool me in the least--he's just a dry drunk!

[tabasco]

38. Are the fundies so gullible they believe any asshole who says they're "reborn?'

I guess so if they believe Bush, who is so deep and spiritual, he made a joke out of the lies he told to go to war (searching for WMD in the Oval Office).

[Frank Cannon]

39. If that slurring, stumbling moron has stopped drinking...

then I've stopped masturbating.

[Thor_MN]

40. His faith-based recovery is working about as well as his faith based initiatives

[truthisfreedom]

43. It's a faith-based presiduncy... and America has lost faith.

[Javaman]

44. Faith and a lot of scotch helped him*. LOL nt

[ryanmuegge]

46. Not his addiction to blood and money, apparently.

[Orsino]

47. Therefore, it didn't. n/t

[noel711]

48. You're still an addict boy...

Once an addict, always an addict. And if you think that prayer
overcame it, you're suffering from an even greater illusion.

Once in love with alcohol, always in love with alcohol.

I have dreams (ha ha) that one day, when he's out of office,
and maybe either in a ditch, or in a prison, he'll wake up and say;
"Hello, my name is George and I'm an alcoholic.'

And then he do the steps.. and a major one is called 'amends.'

[mwb970]

59. How could bush possibly make amends for all he has done?

I can't think of a single thing bush could do that would make up for what he's done to America. He's great at wrecking things but terrible at making anything better.

[jmowreader]

61. I can think of a single thing

But since he won't commit seppuku, I think we're screwn.

[TrogL]

49. Tradition 11 reads (in part)

...we need always maintain anonymity at the level of press, radio and film.

He may "understand" faith-based programs, but if he's actually a member he needs to shut the fuck up.

[ReformedChris]

50. I hope Oliver Stone makes the rumored "Bush" Movie..

So we can finally see a display of this behavior in a "Nixon" type movie where it exposes the dark underbelly of his past. I'm sure Stone will go out of his way to show Bush's true nature.

[truthisfreedom]

51. "Helped," but the rest? WHITE KNUCKLE DRUNK.

[Zhade]

52. Faith IS an addiction - he just replaced one with the other.

NT!

[WittyUsername]

53. Faith Hill?

[hyphenate]

54. Yeah

Nobody should end up like him--poor bastards. Addiction is a serious thing, but it's easier to be a reformed alcoholic than it is to be a reformed sociopath. The fucker in the white house can't stop being one of them--and the only cure for that is a rubber room with a permanent straightjacket.

[Stuart G]

55. He may be dry from booze, but he is addicted to something.

Don't know what, but it is something.

[Amonester]

56. Yes. He's addicted to lies.

War-criminal * lies over and over, and over (935 times on Iraq alone!).



He just can't quit lying.

This last one (OP) is no exception.

[caligirl]

57. with this much candor I wonder if he is doing the 12 step program right now?

Maybe this is why he is talking like this now. Part of the 12 step program is to admit this shit and own it.

[goodgd_yall]

58. I like this part.

Excerpt from the article:


He asked Adolphus Mosely and Tom Boyd how they stopped using drugs - and then answered his own question.

"First is to recognize that there is a higher power," Bush said. "It helped me in my life. It helped me quit drinking."

"That's right, there is a higher power," Mosely said.

"Step One, right?" Bush said, referring to the Alcoholics Anonymous twelve-steps program. Actually, it is the second step.


Step One is: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable. Is it any wonder he didn't know the the First Step?

[boricua79]

60. but

"I understand that sometimes you can find the inspiration from a higher power to solve an addiction problem."

And often, it just indoctrinates the already weak-minded in yet another form of dependence: religious dependence.

Don't make personal choice a state-mandated imposition.