# Bush: There is No "Plan B" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 29, 2007, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-there-is-no-plan-b/390003 "2007-01-29T20:08:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-there-is-no-plan-b/390003/21 "2007-01-30T00:43:01Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] Speaking of their being no Plan B, according to Nancy Pelosi, when asked by her “'Mr. President, why do you think this time it’s going to work ?”, his response was “Because I told them it had to”. [Link](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/25/politics/main2397489.shtml) [/QUOTE] 😕 Because he “_told_ them it had to”? Why the fuck didn’t he “_tell_ them it had to” work three or four plans ago? Cheeses Og, that man is so stupid, I’m surprised he can eat a bowl of pretzels without adult supervision. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-there-is-no-plan-b/390003/22 "2007-01-30T00:48:55Z")
[QUOTE=kaylasdad99] 😕 Because he “_told_ them it had to”? Why the fuck didn’t he “_tell_ them it had to” work three or four plans ago? Cheeses Og, that man is so stupid, I’m surprised he can eat a bowl of pretzels without adult supervision. [/QUOTE] That’s exactly what [Pelosi asked him after he said it](http://americablog.blogspot.com/2007/01/its-even-better-than-kos-reports.html), according to the articles I’ve seen. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-there-is-no-plan-b/390003/23 "2007-01-30T00:55:54Z")
[QUOTE=Muffin] But isn’t the whole point of Plan A to let the Dems handle the pull-out come 2009, and then blame that loss on the Dems in the 2012 race? [/QUOTE] I don’t care what your mother told you on your wedding night, but “pulling out” is never a good way to prevent [del]pregnancy[/del]insurgency. [QUOTE=Der Trihs] Speaking of their being no Plan B, according to Nancy Pelosi, when asked by her “'Mr. President, why do you think this time it’s going to work ?”, his response was “Because I told them it had to”. [Link](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/25/politics/main2397489.shtml) Bush and his friends really do seem to believe that they can just _make_ the world work the way they want it to by sheer stubborness. [/QUOTE] [‘‘We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.’’](http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17BUSH.html?ex=1255665600&en=890a96189e162076&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland) [QUOTE=ASAKMOTSD] Why is it I keep picturing his dad saying “it wouldn’t be prudent to change horses in mid-stream”? Man, that stubborn gene dies hard! [/QUOTE] “Dance with the one who brung you.” Like **John Mace** , I’m not convinced they every really had a Plan A. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![black\_rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@black\_rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/black_rabbit)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-there-is-no-plan-b/390003/24 "2007-01-30T01:02:17Z")
I just caught five minutes or so of the interview driving home from the grocery store, and I’ve gotta say, I lost a lot of respect for Juan Williams. He let a couple of whoppers slip by with zero followup. Paraphrasing: Q: A lot of people have called your health insurance plan a tax increase on those who get health insurance from their employers. A: It’s not an “increase,” Juan, it’s just a change in the tax code. Q: You betcha. On to the next question. What do you intend to do about the budget deficit? A: Well, when the Republicans were in control of Congress, they exercised fiscal restraint. Q: Sweet! Next up… Grow a pair, Juan. ---
**Author:** ![drewbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drewbert/32/15890_2.png) [@drewbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewbert)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-there-is-no-plan-b/390003/25 "2007-01-30T01:06:53Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] Bush and his friends really do seem to believe that they can just _make_ the world work the way they want it to by sheer stubborness. [/QUOTE] I sometimes tell people that if I concentrate hard enough, I can make a red traffic light turn green just by the sheer power of my mind. Bush seems to think he can make one turn purple. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-there-is-no-plan-b/390003/26 "2007-01-30T01:25:03Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay] > [@](#): > > Originally Posted by **kaylasdad99** > > 😕 > > Because he “told them it had to”? > > Why the fuck didn’t he “tell them it had to” work three or four plans ago? Cheeses Og, that man is so stupid, I’m surprised he can eat a bowl of pretzels without adult supervision. That’s exactly what [Pelosi asked him after he said it](http://americablog.blogspot.com/2007/01/its-even-better-than-kos-reports.html), according to the articles I’ve seen. [/QUOTE] _Well_? What did he say? Did she let him end the conversation without addressing that question? Maybe we should get her a proctor for her next bag of Snyder’s of Hanover. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-there-is-no-plan-b/390003/27 "2007-01-30T01:34:38Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] Speaking of their being no Plan B, according to Nancy Pelosi, when asked by her “'Mr. President, why do you think this time it’s going to work ?”, his response was “Because I told them it had to”. [Link](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/25/politics/main2397489.shtml) [/quote] Why didn’t he tell them it had to work the other two times? > [@](#): > > Bush and his friends really do seem to believe that they can just _make_ the world work the way they want it to by sheer stubborness. The part that keeps amazing me is the idea that we are the only ones with any will. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-there-is-no-plan-b/390003/28 "2007-01-30T01:37:29Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] Doesn’t it make sense that a man who has been given almost everything he ever wanted in life would expect things to happen just because he wants them to? Bush didn’t really say there’s no plan B here. But even if there is, he wouldn’t admit it so-called-plan A might fail. [/QUOTE] I am especially impressed by how people like this seem to insist that everyone pull themselves up by their bootstraps like anyone that can’t pull themselves up by their own bootstraps are lazy bums. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-there-is-no-plan-b/390003/29 "2007-01-30T02:00:52Z")
[QUOTE=Stranger On A Train] [‘‘We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.’’](http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17BUSH.html?ex=1255665600&en=890a96189e162076&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland) [/QUOTE] That is the most scary, disheartening thing I have read in a a long time. > [@](#): > > In the Oval Office in December 2002, the president met with a few ranking senators and members of the House, both Republicans and Democrats. In those days, there were high hopes that the United States-sponsored ‘‘road map’’ for the Israelis and Palestinians would be a pathway to peace, and the discussion that wintry day was, in part, about countries providing peacekeeping forces in the region. The problem, everyone agreed, was that a number of European countries, like France and Germany, had armies that were not trusted by either the Israelis or Palestinians. One congressman – the Hungarian-born Tom Lantos, a Democrat from California and the only Holocaust survivor in Congress – mentioned that the Scandinavian countries were viewed more positively. Lantos went on to describe for the president how the Swedish Army might be an ideal candidate to anchor a small peacekeeping force on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Sweden has a well-trained force of about 25,000. The president looked at him appraisingly, several people in the room recall. > > ‘‘I don’t know why you’re talking about Sweden,’’ Bush said. ‘‘They’re the neutral one. They don’t have an army.’’ > > Lantos paused, a little shocked, and offered a gentlemanly reply: ‘‘Mr. President, you may have thought that I said Switzerland. They’re the ones that are historically neutral, without an army.’’ Then Lantos mentioned, in a gracious aside, that the Swiss do have a tough national guard to protect the country in the event of invasion. > > Bush held to his view. ‘‘No, no, it’s Sweden that has no army.’’ > > The room went silent, until someone changed the subject. Draw your own conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-there-is-no-plan-b/390003/30 "2007-01-30T02:20:39Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] That is the most scary, disheartening thing I have read in a a long time.Draw your own conclusion. [/QUOTE] It gets scarier as you go along. (Stephen King is for pussies!) If there’s an afterlife, the Founding Fathers are weeping. I hope that whomever holds the Oval Office next at least has _some_ idea of what to do. Otherwise, we’re doomed. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-there-is-no-plan-b/390003/31 "2007-01-30T02:24:44Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] That is the most scary, disheartening thing I have read in a a long time. [/QUOTE] I’m reminded of Greg ‘Pappy’ Boyington’s autobiography _Baa Baa Black Sheep_. He describes the AVG pilots’ covert crossing of the Pacific literally on a ‘slow boat to China’. Poker was a popular passtime. One passenger, a Swede, kept losing every hand. He was laughing. When asked why, when he was losing so much money, he was laughing, the Swede said, ‘I have to laugh; otherwise I’d be crying.’ After reading the quote, I feel like the Swede. ---
**Author:** ![Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c4cdca/32.png) [@Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity_Glomfuster)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-there-is-no-plan-b/390003/32 "2007-01-30T02:26:13Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] I hope that whomever holds the Oval Office next at least has _some_ idea of what to do. Otherwise, we’re doomed. [/QUOTE] He’s got another year and a half left - you think we’re not already doomed? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-there-is-no-plan-b/390003/33 "2007-01-30T02:38:26Z")
[QUOTE=Quiddity Glomfuster] He’s got another year and a half left - you think we’re not already doomed? [/QUOTE] I’m cautiously optimistic that it will still be possible to pull our shit out of the fire by then. Otherwise, what’s the point in living? ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-there-is-no-plan-b/390003/34 "2007-01-30T03:03:09Z")
[QUOTE=Orbifold] I’ve seen this referred to as “The Green Lantern Theory of foreign policy”. Seems apt. [/QUOTE] And it would have worked too if not for all that yellow sand in the Middle East. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-there-is-no-plan-b/390003/35 "2007-01-30T03:20:35Z")
[QUOTE=Wolfian] And it would have worked too if not for all that yellow sand in the Middle East. [/QUOTE] And those meddling kids! Don’t forget about them! ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-there-is-no-plan-b/390003/36 "2007-01-30T03:20:41Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] I’m cautiously optimistic that it will still be possible to pull our shit out of the fire by then. Otherwise, what’s the point in living? [/QUOTE] Well, you might get laid or something … ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-there-is-no-plan-b/390003/37 "2007-01-30T03:34:31Z")
Some “get laid”, a whole lot of “or something”. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-there-is-no-plan-b/390003/38 "2007-01-30T03:40:21Z")
Am I wrong in thinking that Bush is praying for another 9-11 to get him out of his current mess? ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-there-is-no-plan-b/390003/39 "2007-01-30T03:45:33Z")
[QUOTE=Frostillicus] Am I wrong in thinking that Bush is praying for another 9-11 to get him out of his current mess? [/QUOTE] I doubt he is, it would kinda kill his ‘fight them there instead of here’ talking point. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-there-is-no-plan-b/390003/40 "2007-01-30T03:53:40Z")
[QUOTE=Frostillicus] Am I wrong in thinking that Bush is praying for another 9-11 to get him out of his current mess? [/QUOTE] Considering how much credit he claimed in the latest SOTU address for preventing further terrorist attacks on U.S. soil . . . nah. You’re probably right, more’s the pity. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-there-is-no-plan-b/390003.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-there-is-no-plan-b/390003.md?page=3)