Saturday, October 09, 2004
Seeing Green
I was thrown by a comment the President made last night that did not make a bit of sense to me. In an extended dissertation of Kerry's tax plan, Mr. Bush went on about how un-credible Senator Kerry was. Then in a comparison between his own tax plan and Senator Kerry's, the President said:
"We've got battling green eye shades."
This apparently is something that the President has picked up when he received his MBA.
In all the references I can find to "green eye shades," they all have to do with either accountants or individuals who are bean counters. For example, there is this passage in an E-book:
First to adapt to the world of numbers were the accounting mentalities of the time. Thus did computers take root in general ledgers, receivables and payables, payroll and cost distribution, order entry and sales analysis, inventory control and plant scheduling. Bespectacled folk with their fabled green eye-shades and gartered sleeves took up punched cards and tab-runs. They climbed down from their tall stools bringing with them the bookkeeper's technologies: the double-entry and the cross-foot. And when it was five o'clock they went home. What was not finished today would wait until tomorrow.
And there is this by EPA Administrator Christie Whitman in January of 2002:
Before anyone wonders why the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency is speaking to a room full of accountants, I think that it can at least be said that environmentalists and accountants have a couple of things in common. First, we have both been said to view the world through green eye shades, though obviously for different reasons.
Apparently the news media felt no need to tell the rest of us what it means since they have been known to use the term as well. In a "USA Today" story about Enron, Joan Biskupic says:
Cases typically involve a series of complicated transactions made over a period of time, not, for example, a single bank robbery. So prosecutors have to try to build accounting expertise within their ranks and rely more on investigators with green eye-shades and pencils rather than traditional surveillance and shoe leather.
Even though a search of the White House website only turns up last night's use of the term, it appears the President has used it before.
In May and August 2002, the President said this while touting his health care plan:
I believe that when we trust people with their -- trust their decisions, and trust their judgment about how best to care for themselves, a better plan evolves. A much better plan than one designed by some green eye-shades up on Capitol Hill.
But if you were Joe Public, are you likely to conclude that the President was disconnecting with the English language as he is want to do? I would think that after using the term twice in 2002, and not again until last night, his media strategists had to conclude that it was confusing the President' audiences.
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"We've got battling green eye shades."
This apparently is something that the President has picked up when he received his MBA.
In all the references I can find to "green eye shades," they all have to do with either accountants or individuals who are bean counters. For example, there is this passage in an E-book:
First to adapt to the world of numbers were the accounting mentalities of the time. Thus did computers take root in general ledgers, receivables and payables, payroll and cost distribution, order entry and sales analysis, inventory control and plant scheduling. Bespectacled folk with their fabled green eye-shades and gartered sleeves took up punched cards and tab-runs. They climbed down from their tall stools bringing with them the bookkeeper's technologies: the double-entry and the cross-foot. And when it was five o'clock they went home. What was not finished today would wait until tomorrow.
And there is this by EPA Administrator Christie Whitman in January of 2002:
Before anyone wonders why the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency is speaking to a room full of accountants, I think that it can at least be said that environmentalists and accountants have a couple of things in common. First, we have both been said to view the world through green eye shades, though obviously for different reasons.
Apparently the news media felt no need to tell the rest of us what it means since they have been known to use the term as well. In a "USA Today" story about Enron, Joan Biskupic says:
Cases typically involve a series of complicated transactions made over a period of time, not, for example, a single bank robbery. So prosecutors have to try to build accounting expertise within their ranks and rely more on investigators with green eye-shades and pencils rather than traditional surveillance and shoe leather.
Even though a search of the White House website only turns up last night's use of the term, it appears the President has used it before.
In May and August 2002, the President said this while touting his health care plan:
I believe that when we trust people with their -- trust their decisions, and trust their judgment about how best to care for themselves, a better plan evolves. A much better plan than one designed by some green eye-shades up on Capitol Hill.
But if you were Joe Public, are you likely to conclude that the President was disconnecting with the English language as he is want to do? I would think that after using the term twice in 2002, and not again until last night, his media strategists had to conclude that it was confusing the President' audiences.
