# The First Perfect President

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-perfect-president/239976>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [April 14, 2004, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-perfect-president/239976 "2004-04-14T15:24:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2004, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-perfect-president/239976/41 "2004-04-17T03:42:41Z")

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Isn’t he just following Ken Lays lead?

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**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2004, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-perfect-president/239976/42 "2004-04-17T05:29:46Z")

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but he answered the question correctly.

In politics, you must be very careful how you answer idiotic or obviously loaded questions.

If he had answered ‘yes’, he would have opened the flood gates to a jillion inane and repetative questions to himself and his underlings, quotes taken out of context, and endless speculation.

C’mon, you have to admit it was a stupid question.

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2004, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-perfect-president/239976/43 "2004-04-17T06:57:46Z")

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**avabeth:** \*I agree with everything you’ve said here - since our presidents are supposed to be infallible, admitting to a mistake is basically tantamount to career suicide. \*

I agree. However, that doesn’t mean it’s wrong or stupid for the press or Bush critics to be asking these questions.

Bush took a major, MAJOR, _ **MAJOR** _ risk in pushing the country into an aggressive war in defiance of world opinion, based on very shaky evidence of justification for it. If his gamble had paid off, by finding evidence of a serious and immediate threat to us from Iraq and/or by quickly establishing a stable and grateful Iraqi democracy, he’d be smelling like all the roses in Isfahan right now.

This is the flip side of that prospect. He **didn’t** find any WMD threat, and he **hasn’t** resolved the Iraqi governance problems, so inconvenient questions about the wisdom of his decisions are part of the price he has to pay. He went into this with his eyes open, and he has to take the consequences.

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