Well, $%#@! The WaPo lied to me. It isn’t the complete transcript of his opening remarks yet, even.
Where’s the debate?
How bout we move this to the Pit so you can say what you really think?
“A free Iraq will show that America is on the side of Muslims who wish to live in peace, as we’ve already shown in Kuwait and Kosovo, Bosnia and Afghanistan”
My jaw is hanging open…
When is Bush’s next state visit to Kosovo, Bosnia, or Afghanistan, the bastions of peace, freedom, and democracy? Mission Accomplished!
“Now is the time, and Iraq is the place, in which the enemies of the civilized world are testing the will of the civilized world.”
heh, that makes it sound like we are the enemies of the civilized world.
… wait a second, that’s not good!
Same place as the one where Ashcroft is going fundamentalist all over pornography’s ass.
…
(aren’t you proud I didn’t say Nazi? Oh, damn)
I’m dying to see what the papers will say tomorrow. Hmmm. I wonder if it’ll come across in print.
Yes, Osama is first and foremost responsible for the deaths of all those people, including a couple I knew, and I do trust that Dubya would have stopped it if they’d been able to put the pieces together, I really do, but what would have been wrong with him preparing an answer for the inevitable demand for an apology with something like this:
“As I’ve said before, I and my Administration would have moved heaven and earth to stop this attack. But we failed. With the information we had at the time, it is my considered belief that we simply did not have enough information pieced together that would have thwarted it. Some of the structural problems that led to this were inherited by my new Administration, some were not, and I wish I had dealt with them earlier. But that was not to be. Osama bin Laden and his supporters are responsible for their own beliefs and actions, but for whatever I could have done and did not, I apologize, to the victims, to their families, and to the nation.”
That might have helped. Oh well.
I don’t think Bush fumbled the ball, except for that comment about we will find WMD.
What I don’t understand is why he wanted the press conference.
I would have thought he might have used the opportunity say state what progress had been made in the last 10 months, what specifically he had done to obtain getting commitments from other countries for troops and those sorts of thing. And some sense of what needs to be done and his plans etc.
As they say, an opportunity is a terrible thing to waste.
Thanks! I was about to ask for it…
Second question:
He repeated the old dodge:
You know, some specifics would be nice by now. At least a frickin’ ballpark WAG, fercryinoutloud. Two years? Ten? How long do we plan to endure at those ‘enduring bases’?
What units performed brilliantly, where? So far, I’ve only heard about the ones that refused to fight, or melted away, or switched sides altogether.
“And we need to find out why.” Maybe they didn’t like the idea of shooting at their own countrymen. Sheez. “If there needs to be more intense training, we’ll get more intense training.” No, you won’t. We had to skimp on their training because it was quite clear that we weren’t training enough of them, fast enough. So we sped things up, hired contractors to train them who didn’t know what they were doing, and here we are.
Third question:
I’m gonna skip to a goodie:
And this from the most secretive Presidency ever, including Nixon’s?
From your lips to God’s ears, Mr. Bush.
Well, gotta go to bed. Back in the a.m.
After his performance tonight, his supporters finally threw in the towel, I guess.
'Bout time!!
Yeah, John, don’t it make you miss ol’ Bill? The boy could dance and sing so sweet I didn’t care WHAT he said! And I was weaned on the best, JFK’s casual, “Mind if I interupt ‘Queen for a Day?’ I need to flirt with Helen Thomas,” matinees.
Well, we do know that the President thinks asking him hard questions weakens the morale of our troops who volunteered to serve in Iraq. I think we are going to hear that again–that questioning the President’s decisions undermines troop morale. I’m sure that this view is based on his personal experience since his morale was just all undermined and weakened by people doubting Lyndon Johnson and Richard M. Nixon. As I think about it that may be the explanation for the whole Texas and Alabama Air guard thing. His morale was undermined.
What we saw and heard was vintage George Bush. He was focused on a message. There were things he was going to say no mater what the question was. Apparently in press conferences the guy who asks the question does not get to object that the answer is non-responsive and ask that the witness be directed to answer the question asked.
I just loved the hope that Saddam’s chemical, biological and nuclear weapons will yet be found. We may have to settle for a “capability” to produce chemical and biological weapons–but then your local high school chemistry class has the capability to produce chemical weapons. Any good medical lab is capable of producing biological weapons. You will remember, however, that we knew where just where they were stock piled.
The same old Saddam was a threat (never mind the nature of the threat), Saddam gassed the Kurds, Saddam subsidized Palestinian suicide bombers, Saddam attacked his neighbors, the world is a better place without Saddam. At least the President conceded that he would not like to have his home occupied by a foreign army.
No economic questions. How come?
No, his supporters are smart enough to know that no matter what they say on this board they’ll be met with howls of indignation, character assassination, and outrage. C’est la guerre.
Before I came here, I watched a number of roundtable responses by people on the right and left. Hardball, CNN, etc. The reviews were okay. No one thought that this was a disaster, nor did they think it was a slam dunk. I agree with that. He fumbled a few questions, he made some serious points. That’s the way it goes.
Those of you aghast that he didn’t say “I made a mistake” don’t understand politics. One of the things a President has to do in these situation is avoid the ‘damaging soundbite’. Bush knows damned well that if he said, “Well, I am willing to say I made a mistake in not being on a war footing,” or “Plenty of us made mistakes”, or anything even remotely similar, the next day’s headlines would be “BUSH ADMITS MISTAKE OVER 9/11!” I’m sure his people told him, “Whatever you do tonight, do NOT say you made a mistake. You can say you wish things had been done differently, or there was a different sense of urgency, or I wish we had not run out of time, but do NOT use the word mistake.”
But you know, after I saw all the reasoned commentary on Hardball and CNN, I said to myself, “Oh, I’ll bet they are climbing the walls over at the SDMB.” Thanks for not disappointing me.
:rolleyes:
So sorry, this is Great Debates. Do you have a point? Or is the stock response from the right merely “howls of indignation” at their treatment, “character assassination” by ascribing base motives and behavior to other posters, and outrage.
Personally, outside of politics, yes, I would like to see him stand up like a man with a bit of backbone, do some straight talkin’ and say, “Yep, missed that one. But it was my watch. I am the President of the United States.”
But you are arguing that we should be more politically astute? Okay. Would being politically astute in this situation be a) pointing out that he is absolutely avoiding the question, or b) not saying anything about it? Who is being politically naive?
The nice thing is that in this case, being politically astute AND also demanding personal accountability go hand in hand.
Well, if they are saying so over at Hardball and CNN… Damn liberal media.
And thanks for not disappointing me.
Your welcome. And you can’t be serious. Those guys on TV have to try and be reasonable. Over here, we’re not being paid by some corporate kumquat to be respectable.
Sorry.
I thought the “I won’t lose my job” part pretty shitty answer.
He certainly is better when he is babbling about his ideals and making set speeches. His answers were sometimes ok to good... but the tone and confidence weren't.
At least he didn't rattle on about War on Terror in Iraq. He just said it was "part of the war on terror" ... only because he invaded the dam place... but correctly NOW a part of the war on terror he is sponsoring.
I hope american voters were tuned in... instead of regurgitating what the media passes along. I doubt the newspapers would criticize him.I would hope that the leader of the free world would have enough sense to figure out that particular issue all by himself. Do you doubt the man Sam?
Boy, are we ever!
WOW – looks like Straight Dope is showing its true color as the home of the inbred opinion. Great analysis all!!