"Actually, You Forgot Poland" (2004)

This Day (An America 250 History Show)

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 September 2023

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s September 30th. This day in 2004, George W. Bush and John Kerry take the stage for the first presidential debate of the 2004 election. In response to Kerry saying that very few countries supported the United State’s invasion of Iraq, Bush responded that. “actually, you forgot Poland.”

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss what that comeback landed so poorly, and became an early internet meme — and the larger context of the “coalition of the willing” the Bush administration was using to justify the Iraq war.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.
0:07.0	My name is Jody Avergan.
0:11.0	This day, September 30, 2004, the run-up to the
0:15.0	O4 election incumbent George W Bush versus Democratic
0:17.8	challenger John Kerry, and it's the first presidential debate of
0:21.8	that cycle.
0:23.0	No surprise, its fall of 2004,
0:25.0	nearly two-thirds of the 90-minute debate
0:27.4	was about the war in Iraq,
0:29.4	which by this point was already proving
0:31.2	to be much more grinding than the Bush administration had
0:33.6	anticipated and promised when they first invaded that country.
0:37.7	And certainly the most memorable moment from that debate was the exchange in which John Kerry sought
0:42.3	to criticize the nature of the invasion as
0:44.5	hasty and cavalier and not coordinated. Kerry said quote when we went in there were
0:50.0	three countries Great Britain Australia and the United States.
0:53.1	That is not a grand coalition.
0:55.0	We can do better.
0:56.7	To which George W Bush responded, well actually you forgot Poland.
1:01.6	And there it is, you forgot Poland.
1:03.0	It is. It is quite the line.
1:04.0	It became a whole thing.
	...

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