1
   

He said they said who cares?

 
 
kelticwizard
 
  1  
Reply Wed 25 Aug, 2004 01:21 pm
Incidentally, I am somewhat suspicious of that 25% score myself.

Some people have reported that the score appeared to be erased and then initialled in. I haven't checked it out.

I do find suspicious that Bush just happened to hit exactly the minimum score that would be necessary for him to go into pilot's training. Not a 26% or 28%. No sir, Right on the money. When combined with his appointment to being an officer and being jumped ahead of 150 candidates to get into the Guard in the first place, it looks like people were looking for ways to take care of the Congressman's son and then making it look good.
0 Replies
 
JustWonders
 
  1  
Reply Wed 25 Aug, 2004 10:26 pm
"Lieutenant Bush is an outstanding young pilot and officer and is a credit to his unit," Lt. Col. Bobby Hodges wrote on May 27, 1971. "This officer is rated in the upper 10 percent of his contemporaries." Another, written by Maj. William Harris on May 26, 1972, was just as glowing: "Lieutenant Bush is an exceptional fighter interceptor pilot and officer."

(Sorry, I just like seeing it in print LOL)
0 Replies
 
kelticwizard
 
  1  
Reply Wed 25 Aug, 2004 11:24 pm
Fine. After he got in the unit, it looked like he did turn out to be a good pilot.

But what about the people he jumped over. Why didn't they get the chance to show what they can do? Doing well after you get the position does not justify subterfuge in getting the position in the first place.

Hmmm, with 300 Americans being killed a week in VietNam, I wonder if somebody else had gotten that flight position, if he would have been trained to fly a plane that just happened to be eliminated from VietNam just a few weeks after flight school was done.
0 Replies
 
kelticwizard
 
  1  
Reply Wed 25 Aug, 2004 11:36 pm
McGentrix wrote:
But, what if the average is 30%? Does that make a difference?


I would say so, yes.

But do you really believe it was?

You know how minimum scores work-they are set so that in a time when the service might be begging for qualified pilots, they set the sights low enough so they can get someone to actually train as a pilot who you feel has a decent chance of not being so incompetent they crash the plane.

More on the average score being 30%. Well, the average score on the leadership section was 88%. While I'm sure the average varies section to section, it does indicate that a low score like 25% on any section is likely to be very far below average.

And if you have one score very, very far below average, then it beocmes almost impossible to get a high combined score for several sections averaged together.

Then you have the small fact that he was jumped over 500 people who were waiting for a year and a half to get into the Guard, even though he first applied just 12 days before. And that he was appointed an officer without going through rigorous Officers Training, or ROTC, or the usual degrees.

Face it, McGentirx, Bush Jr had the whole path from student whose deferment was running out to pilot school for a plane that was not going to be used in VietNam all set up. All that was left was for various people along the way to take care of the paperwork-it was a preordained process orchestrated by his Congressman daddy.
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McGentrix
 
  1  
Reply Thu 26 Aug, 2004 06:47 am
I ask because it has been repeatedly demonstrated that bush scored 95% on his leadership test, but it's decried that "88% was the average!" So, he scored 25% on his pilot aptitude test, if 30% is average it would make a difference if instead the average was 75%, now wouldn't it? I suspect the average was lower becuase the left would be screaming like a bunch of Rhesus monkeys about it.
0 Replies
 
kelticwizard
 
  1  
Reply Thu 26 Aug, 2004 07:08 am
McGentrix:

I suspect that the average on the pilot's aptitude test was lower than 88% also.

But how much lower?

25%, which Bush got on the pilot's aptitude, was the minimum acceptable.

Now you are suggesting that 25% was the minimum, but just a tiny bit above minimum was what the overwhelming majority of applicants got?

When have you ever seen that happen? Especially since on one test, the average was 88%.

You are really grasping at straws here.
0 Replies
 
McGentrix
 
  1  
Reply Thu 26 Aug, 2004 07:15 am
Until we know, all we can do is speculate. I don't figure the average was too much higher though.
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kelticwizard
 
  1  
Reply Thu 26 Aug, 2004 07:37 am
Turns out these are percentile scores. So Bush scored better than only one out of four people taking the pilot's aptitude test.
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au1929
 
  1  
Reply Thu 26 Aug, 2004 07:45 am
That old adage rings true. "it is not what you know but who you know".
That is the story of Bush's life.
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McGentrix
 
  1  
Reply Thu 26 Aug, 2004 07:48 am
Yes, he's led a blessed life.
0 Replies
 
revel
 
  1  
Reply Thu 26 Aug, 2004 08:04 am
Frankly I don't care anymore about Bush's pilot days or kerry's swift boat days. It was 35 years ago for goodness sake.

Bush has been in office of the Presidency for three years and nothing has gotten any better only worse. So either he goes or it will only continue to get worse. It's that simple.


simply didn't like the part i erased
0 Replies
 
au1929
 
  1  
Reply Thu 26 Aug, 2004 08:15 am
McG
Yes, because he was blessed we have been cursed. Is that fair?
0 Replies
 
McGentrix
 
  1  
Reply Thu 26 Aug, 2004 08:22 am
I don't feel cursed.

Believe it or not, a lot of people actually like George W. Bush and believe he is doing a good job. There have been some potholes and bumps along the way, but in general, Bush has done many of the things the Way I would want them done. Can't say I agree with every policy, but then no president in history has been everything to everyone.
0 Replies
 
Brand X
 
  1  
Reply Thu 26 Aug, 2004 08:33 am
Quote:
How did it happen? How did something that did or did not happen some 35 years ago become such an issue in this presidential campaign?IMO It is a distraction or red herring thrown up by the Bush campaign to distract people away from the real issues the problems that face the nation and the Bush administrations performance over the last 31/2 years.And in addition who would be better equipped to handle the process of government. IMo how the incident went down all those many years ago I couldn't care less how about you? Will it in any way influence you vote?


How did it happen? Well, the Dems had a candidate that was all about issues, a nut, but still he wanted to talk about issues and he energized the Dem base even if it was the far left base.

Instead the DNC in their infinite wisdom chose Kerry so he and they could put his Nam service out front, so here it is out front where they wanted it only not quite...backfire!

Sometimes strategy works and sometimes it doesn't so we don't have any good choices.
0 Replies
 
sozobe
 
  1  
Reply Thu 26 Aug, 2004 09:07 am
This has come up a few times.

Who put on his fighter pilot paraphernalia and played soldier?

Who keeps talking about strong and tough and war president?

Who keeps trying to portray Kerry as soft and wishy-washy?

I wish I had time to do a nimh job right now -- I don't -- but I don't think it would be too hard to come up with a whole lot of ways that Bush "started it", where an emphasis (but NOT to the exclusion of issues -- issues were very much a part of the Dem convention, and are very much part of the campaign) on Kerry's Vietnam stint served as a rebuttal to the many things Bush had already said and done.
0 Replies
 
 

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