President Bush

LORELAI: I hate President Bush … He’s stupid and his face is too tiny for his head and I just want to toss him out.

Lorelai is talking about George W. Bush (born 1946), who had been elected President of the United States in November 2000, and sworn in on January 20 2001, less than two months previously from Lorelai’s perspective. He is the son of George H.W. Bush, who was US President from 1989 to 1993. Like so many famous people referenced in the show, George W. Bush has a Connecticut connection, being born in New Haven: he also attended both Yale and Harvard.

Lorelai’s perception of George W. Bush as “stupid” was one shared by many people, due to his frequent lapses of grammar, mangled sentences, and baffling statements. Polls showed that American voters saw him as having a low intelligence. Historians rate his presidency quite poorly, although his popularity has picked up since he left office in 2009.

It was rare for Gilmore Girls to stray far into politics, so this was an unusual moment which identified Lorelai as a Democrat. She was clearly desperate to get attention away from Rory, and her plan worked. Impulsive as ever, Lorelai didn’t stop to think whether her comment was going to make the evening easier. It didn’t help things.