He did a much better job than I expected.
The only thing he said that surprised me was that he had authorized release of all his military records (Said as part of his denial of that AWOL charge).
However, he continued to lie thru his teeth and IMO still sucks.
What did he lie about, specifically? I didn’t watch the show.
That he was a “uniter, not a divider”, WMD (Pretty good because Russert had his quotes up on the screen), and that he was going to be re-elected are just a few.
What military records has he released? Has he released anything which shows that he ever showed up for duty at the Alabama ANG?
Depends on whether your are grading presentation or content. On presentation, I would give a strong B. On content, about a C only because nothing new whatever was said. There were no revelations, simply the same talking points delivered by the Shining One, rather than one of his minions. Hence, one must assume that presentation the purpose entire.
Clearly, Mr. Rove programmed him well, his answers could not have been improved if he had known the questions in advance. Which, of course, he mostly did, as did we all. I think the only time Tim caught him off guard was in the question about supporting the Viet Nam war. GeeDubyas evasion was tactful and smooth.
His point of highest political vulnerability was on the WMD/Iraq questions. How could it have been otherwise? He is at great pains to expand the focus of the investigation, thus justifying the need for a report safely beyond the Event Horizon of November. If I didn’t know better, I might have bought it.
(Remember how Dick Nixon said he was fighting to protect “future Presidents”? )
One thing not sure about: did he say he already had authorized the release of all relevent military records including paystubs, etc? Or did he expect us to swallow that line about how an Honorable Discharge is conclusive proof? Note that he buttresses that argument with an allusion to the systematic and exhaustive record keeping of the military. Records which appear to have gone “poof!”.
I dearly wish Tim-may! had brought a copy of the increasingly famous “torn document”, as well as transcripts of Bush defenders alluding to it. I suspect we would have had a classic “deer in headlights” moment.
Bush told Russert that he had authorized release of all his military records. He flatly denied the AWOL allegation and said he had not failed to report for duty and that he received an honorable discharge.
D/C after 30 days it’s desertion. Here’s a link w/ some released documents claiming GW’s just missing http://www.awolbush.com/ for a year.
I started a thread on this over in IMHO as well. What struck me was his refusal to acknowledge the staggering debt he has created and continues to feed. When Russert pointed out that he has spent more than any other president in history, he denied it! Is this idiot seriously in denial or is he just so arrogant that he believes people will believe whatever he says to them despite the facts?
Go read the printed transcript at the New York Times, without the benefit of visuals and Bush’s attempts at being folksy, and see just what a dipstick we have for a leader.
What “torn document”?
Well, it’s not hard to hit home runs when you’ve got Tim “Softball” Russert lobbing them in at you.
The scariest thing is that this is what passes for a hard-hitting political interview in the United States.
So if you parse all that, he said exactly nothing. The Honorable Discharge means dick. It’s misdirection at best. The rest is is just ordinary dissembling. He can deny being AWOL by clinging to the fact that he was never formally charged with it. He denies that he failed to show up in Alabama but it doesn’t sound like he’s got any record of it. If he did, I’m sure would have said so.
I don’t think that Kerry should waste his time making overt references to Shrub’s desertion, though. Everybody already knows. He should focus on the failures in Iraq, the lies about WMD, the exploding deficits, the fascistic Patriots act, all the children that Bush has left behind, etc.
Hopefully the press will do the work of harping on the contrast between Kerry’s and Bush’s military records.
Russert asked him if he’d make full disclosure of his service records - including pay stub records, etc.
Bush replied to the effect that he’d done all that in 2000, but Russert pressed him again and Bush said he that he would. Kind of like an “Uh Huh,” which didn’t seem like a serious, unequivocal commitment. We’ll see.
You don’t have to tell me it was desertion. I beat that drum all the time and I also enjoy linking to the AWOL Bush site. the Bush defenders usually just point to the fact that he was never formally charged with being AWOL, so that means he couldn’t have been a deserter. I also get the “prove he DIDN"T show up” argument, which is easily refuted by documents which say he never showed up but they just claim that there must be “missing” documents that prove otherwise.
That’s why I was wondering if Bush had released anything new in that regard. If he’s released his personal jacket that would show in more detail what he did or didn’t do for that year.
I honestly feel that the ANG could have charged him with Desertion if they really wanted to be hardasses about it (or at least some sort of UA or DOD charges). They sure as hell would have charged me with something.
I can’t believe there’s one person left in this world who actually believes anything that spews from his mouth.
I quit believing his shit when he “owned” the Texas Rangers. I had to endure more of his bullshit for several years after. When Poppy first ran for pres. back in ‘80 if you recall…he couldn’t even get his “own” state to nominate him as a candidate. Yet they continue w/ that "good ol’ boy" crap.
I wish that whole clan could/would go back to Maine or Germany or wherever the Nazi fuc**rs came from.
Sorry D/C didn’t mean to lose it…
Do you suppose the shrub’ll give Hinkley a pardon before he’s out? That’d be icing on the cake wouldn’t it?
Forgive the obscure reference, those of us who obsess about these thing forget that other people have lives.
The best (and scrupulously fair) exposition of this occurs on the CalPundit blog
To get background, you will have to read the preceding blog as well. To brief: several Bush defenders have pointed to a document that records dates that GeeDubya claims to have attended drills, absent other evidence and testimony. It is presumed to be a copy of a document inserted into GeeDubya’s papers held by the Texas Archive (don’t ask…)
But the document (or copy) has several suspicion arousing problems, one of which is that it is (conveniently? regretably? purposefully?) torn in such a way that only GeeDubyas middle initial appears, the SS number has been redacted.
Check out CalPundit for a vastly better summation, and read the response threads as well.
WTF am I apologizing for this is a pit thread? :smack:
That being the case…the whole fucking bunch can rot. They’ve been involved in so goddamned many covert ops, lies, coincidences and coverups over the past century only a fucking moron would say “it was just coincidence.”
Whew…that felt good. 
Hinkley doesn’t need a pardon, he was acquitted. He was crazy in the head and they committed him. He says he’s all better now, though.
The question is will Bush pardon Cheney for the Plamegate thing. Remember when Poppy pardoned everyone who could implicate him in Iran-Contra? The Shrub doesn’t fall far from the Bush.
Speaking of the artificail good-ol’-boy act, have you ever noticed that W is the only one in his family who speaks with a Texas accent? Where did that accent come from? Is there some obscure region of Kennebunkport where the people talk just like Texans?
(That was a very shrewd move when W traded Sammy Sosa from the Rangers, btw. What do you need 50+ homeruns every year for?)
This one. There’s a rather exhaustive debate about it on the calpundit blog.
I also like this document and the (redacted) response to question 18 at the bottom.
torn document…(mutter, mutter)…grassy knoll…(mutter, mutter)…Franklin Delano Rosenfeld…(mutter, mutter)…Sammy Sosa… Sammy Sosa! Of course, now it all fits together!!
Oh, wait, I forgot about the secret Mormon/Amish alliance…
You mean he wasn’t the hard-ass he was when he interviewed Dean and asked him how many troops were in Iraq and then scolded Dean for 1) taking issue with the question and 2) “incorrectly” estimating 135,000 instead of the actual number of 146,000 troops?
So will the media sycophants do a circle-jerk in their reviews and claim that Russert “brilliantly pummel[ed] this guy all morning,” or “chopped him up into little pieces” or that Bush “had the look of someone in the midst of a root canal,” and “never got a break” from his host? Will pundit’s praise Russert’s “brilliant and persistent questioning” and say that he was “so sharp, so knowledgeable on the issues, so well-prepared that I’m darned near ready to vote for the first candidate who picks Russert as a running mate”? Was Russert “famously gladiatorial” and perhaps even "too well prepared”?
No, you say? I agree. The above quotes were made in reference to Russert’s July 16, 2000 interview of . . . Al Gore.
That wacky “liberal” media.
