Bush meets Lehrer
“NewsHour” may not be quite as high-profile as “60 Minutes,” but the president’s interview with Jim Lehrer today was at least as interesting as Sunday’s appearance on CBS, if not more so.
LEHRER: Mr. President, do you have a feeling of personal failure about Iraq right now?
BUSH: I’m frustrated at times about Iraq because I understand the consequences of failure…. Look, I had a choice to make, Jim, and that is - one - do what we’re doing. And one could define that maybe a slow failure.
I’m curious when, exactly, Bush came to the realization that the plan he’s been defending for the last four years was marked by failure, albeit a slow one. As recently as three months ago, when Democrats running in the midterm elections characterized the policy this way, Bush described them as weak, wrong, and dangerous. Now, he’s come around to the same conclusion they did. I’m sure an apology will be forthcoming.
LEHRER: Is there a little bit of a broken egg problem here, Mr. President, that there is instability and there is violence in Iraq - sectarian violence, Iraqis killing other Iraqis, and now the United States helped create the broken egg and now says, okay, Iraqis, it’s your problem. You put the egg back together, and if you don’t do it quickly and you don’t do it well, then we’ll get the hell out.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Yeah, you know, that’s an interesting question. I don’t quite view it as the broken egg; I view it as the cracked egg…where we still have a chance to move beyond the broken egg.
I don’t want to belabor the metaphor, but isn’t a cracked egg already broken?
BUSH: The world will see - 20 years from now, it’s conceivable the world will see a Middle East that’s got Shia - radical Shia and radical Sunnis competing against each other for power, which will cause people to have to choose up sides in the Middle East, supporting ideologies that are the exact opposite of what we believe.
Secondly, it is likely, if that scenario were to develop, that Middle Eastern oil would fall in the hand of radicals, which they could then use to blackmail Western governments.
Thirdly, when you throw a nuclear weapon race in the midst of this, you’ve got a - you know, a kind of - a chance for radicals to use weapons of mass destruction in a form that would cause huge devastation. In other words, there would be a cauldron of radicalism and extremism that a future generation would have to deal with.
This one prompted Maureen Dowd to respond: “So after scaring Americans into backing the Sack of Iraq by warning that radicals could get W.M.D., now he’s trying to scare Americans into supporting the Surge in Iraq by warning that radicals could get W.M.D. So many deaths, so little progress.”
BUSH: I - the elections - you know, what made my determination that we needed to change policy was what was happening in Iraq; not what was happening in American elections.
Oh really? Two weeks ago, several White House aides acknowledged that “their timetable for completing an Iraq review had been based in part on a judgment that for Mr. Bush to have voiced doubts about his strategy before the midterm elections in November would have been politically catastrophic.” The elections weren’t a factor? Please.
BUSH: Success also means making sure al-Qaida doesn’t get a foothold in Iraq, which they’re trying to do in Anbar province…. [T]he final option is secure the capital and at the same time chase al-Qaida into Anbar. And what’s different is that there would be more troops this time and better rules of engagement so that the Iraqi troops and our troops, working side by side, will be able to go after the enemy.
As Digby noted, “He says that al Qaeda is trying to gain a foothold in Anbar and then says that the plan calls for the troops to chase Al Qaeda into Anbar. Assuming there’s some way of making sense of that — is it wise to say it publicly?”
And then there was my personal favorite:
LEHRER: Let me ask you a bottom-line question, Mr. President. If it is as important as you’ve just said - and you’ve said it many times - as all of this is, particularly the struggle in Iraq, if it’s that important to all of us and to the future of our country, if not the world, why have you not, as president of the United States, asked more Americans and more American interests to sacrifice something? The people who are now sacrificing are, you know, the volunteer military - the Army and the U.S. Marines and their families. They’re the only people who are actually sacrificing anything at this point.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, you know, I think a lot of people are in this fight. I mean, they sacrifice peace of mind when they see the terrible images of violence on TV every night.
He didn’t appear to be kidding.
I can only hope Bush does a lot more of these interviews. No president has ever had an approval rating in the teens before.
I’ve never been a believer of the “War for Oil” argument. But the more times he brings this stuff up, the more I’m inclined to buy it. Of course, that threat could be eliminated if we … oh, I dunno … FOUND SOMETHING OTHER THAN OIL AND GASOLINE TO RUN OUR CARS!!!!!!!!!
Just a thought.
Jesus H. Riverdancing Christ …
So seeing a few blown up cars and injured people = the pain a military family feels as they are told daddy isn’t coming home ever again due to Bush’s War of Choice? Does he have any fucking idea what these families go through?
If his comment doesn’t get the same kind of run that Kerry’s botched joke does, no righwinger can ever, under any circumstances, mention the phrase “liberal media bias” ever again. Period.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, you know, I think a lot of people are in this fight. I mean, they sacrifice peace of mind when they see the terrible images of violence on TV every night.
Is this man a complete fool? My peace of mind is being sacrificed as this idiot is in charge of this mess. And then I think it could have been worse; he could have asked me to go shopping again! Thanks for the summary; I just can’t bare to watch him anymore.
Actually Lehrer’s “broken egg” question is a good one, and should be directed at Congress-folk who say “they’re not stepping forward to fix their own country”, “we’re doing our part but they’re not doing theirs.” and similar garbage.
(Of course Shrub doesn’t even grasp the question and stuttered about “moving beyond the broken egg”, whatever that means…)
Also why didn’t Lehrer follow up on the jaw-dropping “slow failure” comment? Can’t anyone do interviews right?
Oh! my beautiful mind!
And one could define that maybe a slow failure.
“But don’t worry; we’re accelerating.” Wow, that’s an enormous admission.
Shruby should be speechless with humiliation, but instead he continues to create an endless stream of meaningless drivel out of both sides of his mouth.
These interviews are a look into a dark and hollow heart. The guy needs to wear a big red L for Lier.
Sham-Man talking.
How do we deal with a madman who’s holding this country hostage? That’s the issue we really have to confront.
What we have learned about Bush from this interview:
Although he has a ranch, he has never been around chickens. A cracked egg is a broken egg - eat it, toss it, let it decay, but it will never develop into a chick.
Although he is commander in chief, he has never experienced the profound pain of losing someone you love. Has anyone in his family died? If he thinks contemplating abstract death is the same as contemplating the death of a son or daughter, he demonstrates how sheltered from life he has been.
Whew, for a minute there, when they started talking about broken eggs, I thought Bush was going to say something like “Look, you can’t make an omelette . . .”
I think Bush was trying to show he was keeping pace with his failure. He was so slow to recognize it, because it’s a such slow failure. But, he kept up with it.
If I was Karl Rove, I’d advise the Nitwit in Chief to come down with a bizarre, 2 year case of laryngitis.
“..that Middle Eastern oil would fall in the hand of radicals, which they could then use to blackmail Western governments.”
So he already considers his vision to rid America of its addiction to oil a failure?
And what are “better rules of engagement”? Turning Baghdad into a free-fire zone?
Hmmmm…. Cracked egg, slow failure. Clearly we shouldn’t pay for this carton, because the salmonella’s already spreading.
Well a cracked egg also can indicate that the emergence of a baby chick is imminent. The beautiful fledgling democracy that Bush has promised us! Keep your eye on the egg! What’s that smell?
God, I’d give anything for a President who didn’t turn my stomach by just opening his mouth or even appearing. These he surely ain’t –
Cicero’s rebuke of Catiline: “How long, O Catiline, will you abuse our patience? How long is that madness of yours still to mock us?”
Henry II on Thomas Beckett: “Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?”
Jefferson on George III: “The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.”
Joseph Welch on Joe McCarthy: “Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Chuck Hagel on Bush’s Quagmire: “”the most dangerous foreign policy blunder carried out since Vietnam.” and “a dangerously wrongheaded strategy that will drive America deeper into an unwinnable swamp at great cost.”
Holy Crap. This is perhaps the worst Bushism EVER.
“I think a lot of people are in this fight. I mean, they sacrifice peace of mind when they see the terrible images of violence on TV every night.”
So watching “the terrible images of violence on TV” counts as being “in the fight”? No wonder he thinks he served his country during Vietnam.
I guess we all get a purple heart, for watching this farking idiot represent our great nation.
The thing that really gets me, which I don’t understand, is the passivity with how he would respond to everything should something “maybe happen.” If there are extreme elements, they “could” blackmail us for oil, and you “could” have a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, and these hypotheticals are so scary that we, what, couldn’t deal with it at all?
It seems to him that once an event is happening, it’s too late to deal with it — maybe because the intellectual capacity here is so limited, or because the know-nothings just don’t want to deal with it because it would mean admitting that some things are out of their control.
Instead, no, the only way they can deal with a situation “proactively” is to attack in advance (at least from their thinking) — this way, the outcome rests on them, not on various “intangibles” that they seem unwilling to confront on any level.
It takes some real chutzpah to start a war based on a bunch of hypotheticals. It also takes real chutzpah to start that war, and then rely on these scary what-ifs, to justify further damage — and yet still pretend the problems on the ground aren’t really reality, because a democracy is just waiting to break out all over if we just give it time! ]
He’s out of his fucking gourd.
Bush: “If you were to take it and put me in an opinion poll and said do I approve of Iraq, I’d be one of those that said, no, I don’t approve of what’s taking place in Iraq.”
Yeah, that’s the question they’re asking on the surveys, Mr Bush. “Do you approve of what’s taking place in Iraq?”
Right.
The man is a moron, or he is giving Jim Leherer (and all of us) the finger. Or both. He thinks people are only tired of the violence, not his handling of the whole mess.
The man is a sociopath. Dems must do their duty and remove him. Now.
“I view it as the cracked egg…where we still have a chance to move beyond the broken egg.”
This is your president’s brain. This is your president’s brain on drugs…
I’m sure his comment about seeing icky things on TV (highly sanitized for US consumption) is meant as a jab at the media. But I predict a rumble of fuck yous from people who are making a real sacrifice.
Dear Leader is correct. PTSD is a horrible affliction.
That’s Post-Television Stress Disorder, in case you were wondering.
Bush lets slip that the Mayberry Machiavellis are still in charge…
Bush: “in 2005, I thought - I mean, in 2006, I thought I’d be in a position to remove troops from Iraq…
…a year ago, I felt pretty good about the situation; I felt like we were achieving our objective, which is a country that can govern, sustain, and defend itself.
Really? The situation in Iraq has been FUBAR almost from day one. But apparently Bush’s bubble was still intact one year ago, and he thought he would be able to remove some troops, and would be “achieving our objective” (i.e. influencing the 2006 elections).
Re: a couple comments above…
Bush had a younger sister, Robin, who died of leukemia at the age of three, leaving 7 year-old George an only child until Jeb was born. Psychiatrist and author Justin A. Frank cites HW and Barbara’s reaction to the event as a contributing factor to Dubya becoming a sociopath in “Bush on the Couch.” Interview with Frank at http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/interviews/049
So the sacrifice the rest of us make is watching bad stuff on TV?
Oh, right… it’s all the libberrul media’s fault. They don’t report the good stuff, and insist on showing pictures of bombs going off and people getting killed and blood and gore. If the media would just stop showing that, nobody in America would suffer and nobody would have to sacrifice.
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
So, we need to make sure al Qaida doesn’t get the foothold their trying for in Anbar, by chasing them into Anbar, and the reason al Qaida has a chance to establish this foothold is that we took out Saddam, because we said he was harboring al Qaida, when he wasn’t.
Thinking like that makes the whole un-cracking an egg thing seem crystalline.
Can we impeach him by reason of mental deficit?
Worst line of the interview, in my mind, on the subject of sacrifice - “And one thing we want during this war on terror is for people to feel like their life’s moving on, that they’re able to make a living and send their kids to college and put more money on the table.”
You know, more money to buy optimistic rugs and sh*t. I particularly like the line on putting more money on the table. We have a new Marie Antoinette-ism “Let them eat money!” I don’t think he’s kidding
I watched the interview in full last night and to Bush’s credit he took someone, myself, who thought he was the most evil , foolish, incompetent leader ever in this nation … and made my impression of him worse. I didn’t think it could be done. I now deeply and truly despair for the fate of this nation if it can survive the next two years.
Defining success…
See how many of the following points have actually improved with the removal of Saddam Hussein…
MR. LEHRER: What does success mean in these terms now, Mr. President?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Yeah, well, success, Jim, means a government that is providing security for its people. A success means for the American people to see Iraqi troops chasing down killers with American help initially. A success means a Baghdad that is, you know, relatively calm compared to last year so that people’s lives can go forward and a political process can go forward along with it. Success means the government taking steps to share the oil wealth or to deal with a de-Baathification law, to encourage local elections. Success means reconstruction projects that employ Iraqis. Success also means making sure al-Qaida doesn’t get a foothold in Iraq, which they’re trying to do in Anbar province. So success is measurable; it’s definable…
So according to Mr Bush, we have the folowing areas to grade his “success” on:
1) Security in Iraq (”a Baghdad that is relatively calm compared to last year“)
2) Reconstruction Jobs (rebuilding the shit we blew up of course)
3) Fighting AlQaeda (”making sure al-Qaida doesn’t get a foothold in Iraq”)
4) Local Elections
I hate to give him credit, but I’d say Saddam did pretty well on 75% of that list, and Bush got under 25%. If the Shiites continue to go after the Sunnis, Bush gets a zero. Actually he gets a huge negative score on #3, because his actions directly (and predictably) fostered the training and recruitment of AlQaeda.
Yes, Mr President, “success is measurable”.
It’s a lost cause to parse Bush’s fractured syntax and incomprehensible constructions but these are the only things we have to go on. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be around this incredible douchebag on a daily basis.
He wants us to “move on” and “make a living” and “send our kids to college” and “put more money on the table” as a result of the war on terror or in spite of it?
What. The. Fuck.
“I think a lot of people are in this fight. I mean, they sacrifice peace of mind when they see the terrible images of violence on TV every night.”
This, then, will be the rallying cry of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders:
“We also serve who only sit and watch TV.”
Idiots.
Just to re-emphasize beep52 in #21 - this interview is something you have Got To Read:
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/interviews/049
…but isn’t a cracked egg already broken?
not if its hard boiled. And Iraq is hard work. Thus the Iraq egg is hard boiled and thus not cracked.
See. Its all clear to me, here in Bushworld.
On a more serious note, Mr. Carpetbagger, any comment on the Shields and Brooks post interview analysis? Brooks surprised me with his (for him) fairly hard hitting analysis on W. Anyone else catch that piece?
To come to the Shrub’s defense for a moment, with a 1080i signal on their Hi-Definition home theater televisions, broadcasting with a 16:9 aspect ratio, 3D Y/C comb filters for better picture delineation and Dolby Digital surround sound with five discrete channels of full range sound a killer subwoofer, it’s almost like you can feel the pain coming through the giant LCD screen.
Just imagine the damage that could be done to Barbara Bush’s beautiful mind with the appropriate audio-visual equipment.
I have never seen GWB in a lengthy interview before, and believe he is a spokesman, perhaps a patsy, for powers far greater than himself. That said, I would think those powers could have chosen a little better. The self gratified smirk when he’d remembered the party line, rehearsed responses for the more difficult questions, no matter how poorly butchered, was painful to see repeated several times.
Great comments all. I have nothing to add except
Worst. (Excuse for a)President.Ever
and
ITMFA