What. An. Idiot.
Truly, truly frightening. I mean, I’m irrationally reluctant to admit I’m wrong about anything, but that just makes me obnoxious, not dangerous. This is the wrong man to have in office at this time.
Eh, I dislike our current president myself, but I’m not sure I could answer a question on the spot like that. And he did say,
I admit he should be quicker on his feet, since he’s not exactly unused to speaking in public and being asked difficult questions, but this does seem minor.
Not to mention that he takes no responsiblity and makes no apology for anything that’s happened during his administration, up to and including 9/11 and the utter failure of intelligence on WMDs. Accountability, my ass.
I wanted to add also that anything major that he should be apologizing for (Patriot Act, 9/11, Iraq, etc) could have very serious legal ramifications if he said anything without thinking through all the angles.
God, I feel icky for almost siding with the man.
I’m trying to think back to the last presidential apology for anything.
Clinton apologized for the Lewinsky affair, sort of. Did he apologize for anything else?
Presidential apologies don’t seem to be common things. Let history judge, and all that.
One of the hardest questions to answer in a job interview is along the lines of, “Tell me something negative about yourself” or “What do you consider to be your biggest fault.” It’s tough to come up with one even if you’re not trying to be coy. And you have some reason to expect it in a job interview. The reporter did essentially this to Tha POTUS. Anyone would fumble that one. Anyone. Add to that the fact that he is probably very aware of at least two or three mistakes since 9/11, but that he’s probably not at liberty to discuss them. 
Everything I’ve seen about him suggests he is a dolt of the highest order with little or no ‘integritude.’ But then, there are a lotta folks who think I’m a dolt of the highest order as well, and an equal number who think I’m a freakin genius.
His mis-speaks and overall public klutziness is what makes him appear a dumbass, but he’s the one who has the top job. My bet is that he’s got something going on upstairs–maybe he’s faking being stupid?
Still, I loathe him and his administration, etc, etc, etc, pile-on, pile-on. I must be feeling kind and generous today. It will surely be my undoing.
I for one can’t blame Bush for the answer he gave, though the mere thought of having that thought makes me want totake a shower.
I like the way you verbiated that.
Christ on a crutch man, it’s not as if he couldn’t have seen the question coming. Even a joke about learning to be more careful when swallowing pretzels would have taken some of the edge off.
Would it, though? I mean, could the President be sued for anything that happens on his watch? I’m not trying to start an argument, I’m curious about the legality of it.
I know that governments (though not necessarily individual persons within them) have issued apologies in other countries, for much less grievous errors or failures to prevent catastrophe.
Yeah, but if you came up with NOTHING, would you get the job?
heh, I might. It’s all in the delivery. 
If he’d joked about things, I think he would have offended very many people. The overall tone of the conference was that we were dealing with VERY SERIOUS TIMES.
He did say that the events of September 11th sickened him, and that he was saddened when meeting with families of victims. This struck me as sincere.
I think Duke’s right. I think it’s FAR more likely that it was the fear of political ramifications that kept him from saying anything.
Just because you’re human doesn’t qualify you for the top job.
I seem to rememeber hearing from Republicans that Clinton was an apology machine. He apologized for doing nothing about the Rwandan genocide, he apologized for US experiments that gave black men syphalis, he apologized for the FBI files thing, he apologized for not finding a cure for AIDS, he apologized for the treatment of American Indians, he apologized for America’s treatment of Africa.
George Will claims that Clinton even apologized to Antarctica, but I don’t recall that.
There’s got to be a happy medium between the Contrition President and the Anti-Introspection President.
Never said it did. Vote the way you wish in the fall.
I just think criticism of the President on this point doesn’t even qualify as nitpicking. Nitpicking, at least, accomplishes something useful.
The fact that someone asks a question doesn’t mean that the question is valid, or points to anything substantial or useful.
Just because there is a question doesn’t mean that it mandates an answer. In this case, the question relies on a false dichotomy: “Either you made a mistake, and you should apologize, or you’re an idiot and a liar because you won’t admit it.” Sheesh.
This whole silly obsession that the press has with “why won’t you apologize”, and “what mistakes have you made” is simplistic and ridiculous - just what soporific Americans like to see. It assumes that because something bad happened, someone has to be assigned blame, because obviously they did something wrong. It assumes simple cause-and-effect in a world where often this isn’t true.
The underlying premise of these questions is that there was a mistake, and that Bush has something to be apologize for. And if you adopt the validity of this assertion, then sure, it’s OK to ask for an explanation and contrition.
However, the reality of this is that there was no mistake that Bush made, and he really doesn’t have anything to apologize for. This isn’t the Oprah show, where there is sin, contrition, forgiveness, and reunion.
The reality of this is that these questions of “mistakes and apologies” are based on a logical fallacy.
A Gordian knot of historical events in the U.S. and abroad, and governmental administrations, presidents, policies and decisions going back decades, has led the U.S. and the world to where we were pre-9/11.
Bush’s mistake? Yeah - his mistake was not identifying, rewriting and reversing decades of policy, law, custom, and mindset in the first 9 months he was in office. What a slacker! How dare Bush not be able to move sky and earth to fix everything. Imagine if he’d copped to that shortcoming last night. He would have been branded as a smart-ass, even thought he would have been accurate.
Was America at risk the day Clinton left office after 8 years in the White House? Obviously we were. Were we at risk when Bush Sr. left the White house? Of course.
Now, you may be foaming at the mouth right about now, because maybe you believe that GWB did make mistakes that he should apologize for. Yet, it would only be your belief - an interpretation of some pieces of information, coupled with agenda and opinion. Much like the nation obsessively focused on the Clinton-Lewinski bullshit for many months at the expense of effective government, now we’re focusing on this silly debate over whether Bush made mistakes and should apologize. Talk about concocting a crisis of distraction.
The bottom line is that a segment of Americans (the press, the Left, whatever) has decided that they are gonna try to define the playing field right now such that this idiotic “mistakes and apologies” diversion will define the worthiness and integrity of the President in an election year. Well, bullshit.
The speech I saw Clinton give on TV had him apologizing that his people did not give him enough information in order for him to assess the severity of the Rwandan situation. He never directly apologized for his inaction over a period of time when the information was fully available to him.
In other words, it wasn’t his fault - it was the fault of his advisors for not getting his attention.
Can I point out, as the OP, that any discussion of “apologies” is a strawman? I never suggested he should have offered an apology. So booka, I’d like to see your post reworked in that light, if you’re up for it. As it stands, it’s a response to something that was never said or suggested, by me or by the questioner, so there’s not much really there for me to respond to without continuing what is essentially a hijack.
With the possible execption of the FBI files thing, these were all things he either had no control over; had nothing to do with in the first place; or as in the case of AIDS, something no one has yet been able to accomplish.
He gets credit for apologizing for these wrongs, and at the same time is immune from the consequences because he didn’t cause them in the first place.
Hence the term: “Slick Willie.”