Bush Says “Little Multinational” Changed His Life

7/31/03: “I owe my Presidency and all my ideas about the economy to one book,” President Bush told a group of Cleveland first graders today. Encouraging them to read the book as well, the President held up his dog-eared and well-worn copy of The Little Multinational That Could, the heart-warming story of an undersized multinational corporation that perseveres and ends up controlling the world economy.

“I first read this book in high school, but you can read it now,” the President told the enthusiastic crowd of Black inner-city children. “I'm sure your school district has enough money to buy one copy. Then you can get it with inner liberry loan.”

The children’s book, referred to fondly as “MNC Can Do” by adult fans who read it as a child, tells the story of a fledgling multinational corporation, MNC, who defies the odds by thinking “I think I can” over and over again, and then bribing key legislators and the President of the United States. The politicians slash MNC's taxes, plunging the nation into a depression and allowing it to buy up the country.

“I used this book to write most of my papers at Yale," the President told the first-graders, several of whom were selling crack in the back of the auditorium. “And I based my entire economic policy on what it taught me.”

Best-selling children's book The Little Multinational that Could inspired President George Bush, who used it as the key reference source for most of his papers at Yale.