Is he really that uninformed?

C-Span scored a sit-down interview yesterday with george bush. I saw this segment of the tape yester day on C-Span. It appeared to me that bush thought Goldwater Republicans were people who still wanted Goldwater elected today. Could he be that uninformed? You decide. As for where he goes after he’s asked, “And can you define the ideology of a Bush Republican?” I have no idea. Here’s part of the transcript of that interview that I found over at Raw Story. The “Q” is the questioner’s question.

Q: Within the Republican Party, there is the Goldwater Republicans --

PRESIDENT BUSH: Still? (Chuckles.)

Q: … and there's the Rockefeller Republicans and Reagan Republicans.

PRESIDENT BUSH: I'm -- go ahead.

Q: Oh, no, go ahead.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, I'm just chuckling. I don't -- I -- I think the Goldwater Republicans and the Rockefeller Republicans are pretty far past.

Q: But I'm talking about ideology. You have Reagan Republicans today. Are there -- will there be Bush Republicans? And can you define the ideology of a Bush Republican?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Compassionate conservatism, you know, the -- the use of government to help people in the private sector advance compassionate goals, like the faith-based initiative.

I -- you know, I -- I chuckled -- I didn't mean to -- I shouldn't have -- that's rude of me, to chuckle in the midst of your question. But I would be cautious about stereotyping mentalities in a constantly changing political dynamic.

And I think people like to label themselves certain things, but political parties grow, and they -- you know, immigration is a classic issue where, you know, I made a name for being compassionate and at the same time understanding the need to enforce our borders on immigration. And I don't think you can label that really any kind of political philosophy or any -- named after any former political candidate. It's just like dealing with a problem in the context of a -- what I call right-of-center or conservative philosophy.