Bush Sez Only Mistake Appointing Disloyal Men: Prez Debate 2

Published on October 9, 2004 By blogic In Politics

Those of you who watched last night's debate know what I'm talking about. Bush was asked to list three mistakes, and basically insisted that he'd made none. None. You may remember that he gave the same answer some months ago, when asked at one of his few press conferences.

None? Anyone who's interviewed for a job knows that saying "none" means you're appallingly arrogant or frighteningly out of touch with reality. Bush should be at least half way competent enough to bullshit a better answer. Iraq is a mess. Generals are saying that. Senators are saying that. The CIA is saying it. And Bush says he's made no significant mistakes? Today, the New York Times documents that the Bush economic "recovery" is an embarrassment compared to those of both his Democratic and Republican predecessors, and he can't think of anything he would have done differently?

Bush lives in a bubble, and is out of touch with the reality in Iraq, and the reality in America. Bush has demonstrated that he's not only unwilling to learn from his mistakes, he's so cocooned from reality that he doesn't even know he's made any.

Comments (Page 1)

Dr Guy

on Oct 09, 2004

None? Anyone who's interviewed for a job knows that saying "none" means you're appallingly arrogant or frighteningly out of touch with reality. Bush should be at least half way competent enough to bullshit a better answer. Iraq is a mess. Generals are saying that. Senators are saying that

Excuse me? What failure firm have you worked for?

Not everyone thinks they are a loser. Time for you to get a better career so you are not.

bakerstreet

on Oct 09, 2004

"Bush was asked to list three mistakes, and basically insisted that he'd made none. None."{/quote] He didn't insist he had made none, you're a liar. Show me in the transcript where he insisted he had made no mistakes. He didn't use the word "none" in his reply.

"GRABEL: President Bush, during the last four years, you have made thousands of decisions that have affected millions of lives. Please give three instances in which you came to realize you had made a wrong decision, and what you did to correct it. Thank you.

BUSH: I have made a lot of decisions, and some of them little, like appointments to boards you never heard of, and some of them big.

And in a war, there's a lot of -- there's a lot of tactical decisions that historians will look back and say: He shouldn't have done that. He shouldn't have made that decision. And I'll take responsibility for them. I'm human.

But on the big questions, about whether or not we should have gone into Afghanistan, the big question about whether we should have removed somebody in Iraq, I'll stand by those decisions, because I think they're right.

That's really what you're -- when they ask about the mistakes, that's what they're talking about. They're trying to say, "Did you make a mistake going into Iraq?" And the answer is, "Absolutely not." It was the right decision.

The Duelfer report confirmed that decision today, because what Saddam Hussein was doing was trying to get rid of sanctions so he could reconstitute a weapons program. And the biggest threat facing America is terrorists with weapons of mass destruction.

We knew he hated us. We knew he'd been -- invaded other countries. We knew he tortured his own people.

On the tax cut, it's a big decision. I did the right decision. Our recession was one of the shallowest in modern history.

Now, you asked what mistakes. I made some mistakes in appointing people, but I'm not going to name them. I don't want to hurt their feelings on national TV.

(LAUGHTER)

BUSH: But history will look back, and I'm fully prepared to accept any mistakes that history judges to my administration, because the president makes the decisions, the president has to take the responsibility.

GIBSON: Senator Kerry, a minute and a half."

Blogic, you are out of control. You've made article after article like this lately. I don't know if it is for points of if you are just really angry at Bush, but I don't think you deserve the venue at this point with what you are doing with it. Your artcicles lately have, frankly, sucked. You are slipping down below Marvin Cooley.

Daiwa

on Oct 09, 2004

blogic, you crack me up.

First, that's the kind of prejudicial rhetorical question that should never have been chosen by Gibson in the first place and it's a lose-lose question for Bush no matter how he responds. It's classic "Have you or have you not stopped beating your wife? Yes or No?" Given how McAwful and the other partisan snakes went ballistic over "internets," for cryin' out loud, you think they would have all said "Oh my God, Bush did the right thing in admitting that he (insert mistake here) and we should here and now praise his courage and honesty"? Beam me up to wherever you are if so. I can just hear Hillary now.

They'd have been all over any mistake he admitted to like flies on shit and would be pounding him on it every day until the election and you know it, just like you're pounding on him for not making some sort of confession of guilt. Bush did a better job of finessing the question than he did in the press conference earlier this year, but he should never have been subjected to it. It amounted to nothing but a cheap ambush on behalf of Kerry. I don't know if Gibson's list was set in stone beforehand or whether he might have pulled that one out ot the stack in spite over being interrupted by Bush earlier in the debate, but either way it was bogus.

Kerry hasn't had his nuts held to the fire like that yet because our mainstream press are nothing but lapdogs for the left.

Cheers,
Daiwa

Dr Guy

on Oct 09, 2004

Your artcicles lately have, frankly, sucked. You are slipping down below Marvin Cooley.

Duh! That is why I hav enot responded! Except to your post.

Again, Duh!

Chemicalkinetics

on Oct 09, 2004

I agree Bush was evarsive and he can do a much better job at answering this question. I will vote for the guy not because he is faultless. He has admitted he has make mistakes. I do agree that he didn't make mistake on the larger issues. I think he could simply name three issues. I do think he indirect said he biggest mistakes are appointment. My guess is that he is talking about O'Neill. O'Neill did cause WhiteHouse some problem: Like when Bush was talking about strong currency policy, O'Neill suddenly talking about the dollar should drop its value. He has repeatly said funny things like that, which cause the WhiteHouse many troubles.

blogic

on Oct 09, 2004

Take a look at the transcript -- this is the closest he comes to admitting any mistakes. Bush takes a potshot at some of his appointments, and you're telling me that's him acknowledging a mistake? Bush seem out of touch with the situations in Iraq and America, and all he can do is blame others for his mistakes.

GRABEL: President Bush, during the last four years, you have made thousands of decisions that have affected millions of lives. Please give three instances in which you came to realize you had made a wrong decision, and what you did to correct it. Thank you.

BUSH: I have made a lot of decisions, and some of them little, like appointments to boards you never heard of, and some of them big.

And in a war, there's a lot of -- there's a lot of tactical decisions that historians will look back and say: He shouldn't have done that. He shouldn't have made that decision. And I'll take responsibility for them. I'm human.

[snip]

Now, you asked what mistakes. I made some mistakes in appointing people, but I'm not going to name them. I don't want to hurt their feelings on national TV.

Wow, he's really done a lot of soul searching on this. I feel so much more confident he's learned something from the last four years.

bakerstreet

on Oct 09, 2004

I don't need to look at the transcript, because I QUOTED THE ENTIRE RESPONSE above on Reply# 2...

You are lying, blogic, and purposefully. He never once denied making mistakes. Did last night go so well for Bush that you have to critique grammar and make up lies?

Daiwa

on Oct 09, 2004

You're obviously not bothering to read, much less contemplate, the replies here, blogic. You're very close to being completely ignored.

Cheers,
Daiwa

bakerstreet

on Oct 09, 2004

He's reading them, he's just being obtuse. He's lying, though, and the obviousness of the lie makes me wonder who he thinks he's appealing to. Even Kerry people will see that this isn't true...

Draginol

on Oct 09, 2004

When we get subscriptions going, we'll have to make sure we put in a way to simply ignore certain posts. I.e. so that when you're logged on user X's posts won't show up for you on the various sidebars. Because I agree, Blogic has slowly moved from interesting editiorial to transparent propaganda.

bakerstreet

on Oct 09, 2004

I don't think this qualifies even as propaganda. This has reached the point of misinformation. Nothing subjective about it, it is just false. He might as well be saying that Bush killed the Limburgh baby...

Draginol

on Oct 09, 2004

According to MoveOn.org, he did.

on Oct 10, 2004

Only thing I didn't like is Bush didn't really say WHAT he did wrong.

Mistakes:
1: Unknown(s) people put in placements by mistake.
2:?
3:?

But he didn't say that he made no mistakes.

bakerstreet

on Oct 10, 2004

No doubt. I'm not saying he didn't dodge the question, but Kerry dodged questions, too. Every politician does. Blogic wants to twist that into Bush openly declaring he hasn't made any mistakes.

STUPID

...isn't it.

oligarchy314

on Oct 10, 2004

Blogic is full of crap

Here are the facts to Bush's response to that question:
1. Bush admitted to making mistakes. (He admitted making mistakes in appointing people to positions)
2. Bush admitted that he may have made mistakes on the war but its too early to tell.

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