A history of Republican presidents and chainsaw proficiency - SkatzPoker

Bobby Wong · 08-02-2016, 02:34 PM

The last time a non-chainsaw-using Republican candidate was elected to the presidency was Richard Nixon.

Richard Nixon - skin too oily to grasp a chainsaw, a disgrace to the office.

Gerald Ford - too clumsy to use a chainsaw, not elected.

Ronald Reagan - avid user of an American-made McCullough at his ranch in California, even during his presidency. Did not believe in sharpening his chain or using safety equipment.

Quote:

Reagan was good at making people comfortable, he said. The first time he went to the Reagans' California ranch, the president was in the doctor's cabin. "He smiled, reached up and grabbed my hand. Then I noticed he had a big hole in his dungarees, and there was blood all around it. He was out with his chain saw and he had cut his thigh. If he'd gone another inch, he might have hit a big artery, but it was a glancing blow."

Dr. Hutton treated it like a war wound, which he had ample practice treating as chief of surgery at a combat hospital in Vietnam. Before long, Reagan was back to clearing trails for horseback riding.

http://www.amednews.com/article/2009...n/303239973/4/

Also our last president to competently swing an axe, and rumored to dual-wield on occasion.

A real man's man, and the greatest Republican president of my lifetime.

Bobby Wong · 08-02-2016, 02:47 PM

George H. W. Bush - learned to use a chainsaw in the CIA. As befitting his secretive nature, the only extant photo of him with a chainsaw is a blurry telephoto shot. Some believe that this is actually a much more recent picture of his son George W., but the pants on that fellow in the back beg to differ.

If the elder George had been less covert about his chainsaw use, his presidency may have been more successful.

Bob Dole - war injuries left him with a permanent disability and unable to operate a chainsaw, not elected.

Bobby Wong · 08-02-2016, 03:00 PM

George W. Bush - a frequent chainsaw user, he owns and operates at least two Stihls (a German company that manufactures saws in Virginia Beach), one adorned with the presidential seal, and what I believe to be his father's old Echo, now repaired with duct tape. Uses a moderate amount of safety equipment and is not known to have suffered any chainsaw related injuries.

Bobby Wong · 08-02-2016, 03:22 PM

George W. Bush continued -

Quote:

Down on the Ranch, President Wages War on the Underbrush
By Lisa Rein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 31, 2005

CRAWFORD, Tex., Dec. 30 -- On most of the 365 days he has enjoyed at his secluded ranch here, President Bush's idea of paradise is to hop in his white Ford pickup truck in jeans and work boots, drive to a stand of cedars, and whack the trees to the ground.

If the soil is moist enough, he will light a match and burn the wood. If it is parched, as it is across Texas now, the wood will sit in piles scattered over the 1,600-acre spread until it is safe for a ranch hand to torch -- or until the president can come home and do the honors himself.

Sometimes this activity is the only official news to come out of what aides call the Western White House. For five straight days since Monday, when Bush retreated to the ranch for his Christmas sojourn, a spokesman has announced that the president, in between intelligence briefings, calls to advisers and bicycling, has spent much of his day clearing brush.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...123001326.html

GW was not above the hard work of dragging brush, and also reveled in destroying it with fire.

He also frequently posed with firefighters, rescue workers, and their chainsaws while campaigning, but appeared to be confused by an axe.

Overall, a bit of a buffoon, but down to earth, marginally competent and someone with whom most red-blooded Americans would enjoy a bit of chainsawing and a beer.

John McCain - his experiences in a Vietnam POW camp have left him with a lifelong fear of chainsaws, not elected.

Mitt Romney - hires undocumented immigrants to do his chainsawing, not elected.

Donald Trump - hands too small to hold a chainsaw, unelectable.