Rock legend and AIDS activist Elton John has praised conservatives and former President George W. Bush for being “amazingly informed” on AIDS and for doing more than all others to fight the disease.
John met Bush in 2004 at the Kennedy Honors Center and credits him with doing more than any other president for the AIDS cause. From Yahoo:
“At the Kennedy Center concert we spent some time in the intermission with the President, George Bush, and he was an amazingly informed about AIDS,” John recounted. “He treated us with such kindness. I had so much respect for him, especially when the PEPFAR thing was announced when he gave 15 billion dollars to AIDS. He knew what he was talking about.”
And:
“One of the old adages in life is never judge someone until you meet them,” John said. “I didn’t like his policies but I have to say when I met him, I found him charming, I found him well informed and I found him determined to do something about the AIDS situation so I changed my opinion of him. And his wife was astonishingly kind to us well. So it was — I learned a lesson.”
John wasn’t stingy with his appreciation:
“We’ve seen George W. Bush and conservative American politicians pledge tens of billions to save the lives of Africans with HIV. Think of all the love. Think of where we’d be without it, nowhere, that’s where. We’d be nowhere at all.”
By the way, this isn’t the first time John has shown fearlessness in the face of the entertainment Left. He played at Rush Limbaugh’s wedding and seems to have a good friendship with him. In 2010, John performed in Tel Aviv despite calls from pro-terrorist hucksters to boycott Israel over the Gaza flotilla debacle.
“Shalom, we are so happy to be back here! Ain’t nothing gonna stop us from coming, baby,” John said to his fans, obliquely sniping at those like the pro-terrorist Elvis Costello, who refused to perform in Israel as “a matter of instinct and conscience.”
“We don’t cherry pick our conscience,” John shot back.
This is a man who can think for himself.
So Diogenes has finally found an honest liberal. Good for Elton John.
(I still love the “Honkey Chateau” album.)
Honky Chateau is one of my favorites, too. I’m not sure it beats Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, though.
Perhaps John is sick of being lied to by the left & has decided to think for himself. As for his music his first four albums are his best work, especially “Madman Across The Water”. My opinion only.
“Tumbleweed Connection” is sadly forgotten. Madman contains Bernie Taupin’s best lyrics and Elton’s best piano work (he said he thinks his piano on Madman is best too).
SO glad that I am not alone in remembering Tumbleweed Connection. I don’t want to live in a world that doesn’t contain “Amoreena” and “Where To Now, St. Peter?” And Madman is a beauty too.
He still plays “Talking Old Soldiers” in concert sometimes!
We don’t cherrypick our conscience.
That is one of the classiest lines spoken by anyone. Well said, Elton John.
Yes, it definitely isn’t the first time Elton John has tweaked their noses. I remember the duet he did with Eminem at an awards show a few years back, after Eminem was castigated for homophobic lyrics in his songs. The LGBT crowd went nuts!
How nice; they pledged $$billions of other people’s money.
Ain’t a dimes worth of difference…”conservatives” love the welfare state, too.