Wow. This is really it. And judging from his tone, we’re well into revisionist history mode:
After starting what he called “the ultimate exit interview” with a lengthy and personalized thank-you to the reporters in the room who have covered him over the eight years of his presidency, Bush showed anger at times when presented with some of the main criticisms of his time in office.
He particularly became indignant when asked about America’s bruised image overseas.
“I disagree with this assessment that, you know, that people view America in a dim light,” he said…
…On another issue destined to figure prominently in his legacy, Bush said he disagrees with those who say the federal response to Hurricane Katrina was slow.
“Don’t tell me the federal response was slow when there were 30,000 people pulled off roofs right after the storm passed. …
Could things been done better? Absolutely. But when I hear people say the federal response was slow, what are they going to say to those chopper drivers or the 30,000 who got pulled off the roof?” he said…
…He gave his view of the most urgent priority facing the incoming president: an attack on the United States. He chose that risk over the dire economic problems now facing the nation.
“I wish that I could report that’s not the case, but there’s still an enemy out there that would like to inflict damage on America – on Americans.” He said he would ask Congress to release the remaining $350 billion in Wall Street bailout money if Obama so desires. But, he said, Obama hasn’t made that request of him yet.
The response to Katrina was just fine, and the biggest problem America faces is not the economy? Just…wow.
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A helicopter rescue is big, dramatic, something you might see in a movie. It’s exciting, and it’s over quickly, and your military can do it pretty efficiently.
Now housing a bunch of people after they’ve been rescued and making sure they have sufficiently supplies, that’s boring. Nobody wants to see movies about that. No wonder there was no thought given to it.
It’s the exact same thing as happened in Iraq: fight a war quickly, have an adventure, and don’t worry about what needs to happen afterward.
While I have a lot of disagreements with Bush, I think his press conference was a strong and honest performance.
The same dividers who’ve been attacking Bush for the last 8 years in a quest for power are attacking him here.
So gracious.
Some people are so small they can’t see the big picture.
Yes, true believers like yourself.
The big picture is that GWB is probably the worst president in the Republic’s history.
As to the few things he got right, jeeeesus, in eight years that blind squirrel in the White House garden found a few acorns.
as are his few remaining supporters.
Bush spent the entire thing whining about how people criticize him. Totally lacking any perspective on the country’s real problems, many of which he caused. All he cares about is what people say about him.
I’m not sure what precisely has to be broken in your brain to still support this pathetic child. Can you enlighten us?
I’d just read accounts of the press conference until a bit ago when I saw an extended excerpt on the PBS News Hour and cringed throughout.
That was flat-out embarrassing. Bush acted like a squirrelly teenager, bobbing and weaving his way from any accountability. Many politicians are narcissists, but few stray so far as Bush into the sociopathic realm.
…shhhh, redstateblues, don’t read this.
after watching Bush’s final press conference, you can stay off the demon weed forever.
(You might try a bit of Oxycontin to take the edge off. That’s how they do it in Alaska.)
I wonder if the Rush-ball has stayed clean.
than a cigarette after being forced to suffer through that.
so he can look up “evacuation.” That’s like noticing a small fire in your house, waiting 6 hours and then calling 911. Boy, it only took those guys an hour to water the rubble that used to be my house. Damn, it’s good to be The Decider.
Apparently he’s no longer going to leave judgement to history. I had to turn it off: Over 4000 American servicemen’s lives thrown unblinkingly into the vortex of his simple understanding of himself and of the world. He’s a disgrace.
during the lead-up to Iraq, Bush is isolated from reality. He’s surrounded by people who are constantly telling him how brilliant he is, and how good of a president he’s been. They don’t give him the whole story because they think he can’t take it–or they have their own agendas.
I do think Bush is half-right, though, about an attack on the homeland still being the most dire threat. Obviously the economy is in rough shape, but think about how much worse it would be if a dirty bomb went off in a major city. Obviously protecting against terror is the number one national security priority.
The problem on the economy is, of course, that the mess we’re in is largely his fault. This is the same president who stood in front of these same reporters, and said over and over again how we weren’t in a recession, and how things were actually getting better!
Things are so much worse now than when Bush took office it’s almost incomprehensible. Not only are many of the same problems (Mid-East, terror, nuclear weapons proliferation, climate change, environmental issues) still rampant, but we have a plethora of new, even worse problems.
This presidency has been a disaster, and obviously the only people who think otherwise are the man himself, and the 20-30% who still approve of the job he’s doing.
He’s gonna be gone in a week.
It’s a week that can’t pass too soon for me.
There’s a few things he can still screw up between now and then, but at least he’ll be gone in a week.
And in 8 days Bush will be history.
when a reporter mentioned that a particular group of historians have judged Bush’s tenure as President as a failure she said they must be bad historians.
Yeah, that’s it. Does she really think anyone believes that crap ?
is completely incompetent and/or evil, and you’re the only good person worth anything, you might be a sociopath.
You just might be a sociopath if
. . . you believe historians are bad because they have an opinion.
. . . you believe God wants you to invade a country and have a lot of innocent people killed as collateral damage.
. . . you think everyone else is wrong even when they use graphs and produce scientific evidence.
would you say that the attacks of 9/11 was a failure of your office or Bill Clinton’s fault?”
As per Bush, she was then promoted.
if we worked to reduce the threat of hostile action against our civilian populations by engaging in pragmatic international diplomacy which recognized the rights of all peoples to exist. The Bush legacy of hatred toward the United States will last of years or until a realistic compromise is reached in the Middle East between Sunni and Shiite and Israeli and Palestinian. Bush has left a FUBAR of international anger towards the US.
As Bush said today, people and governments in many parts of the world, outside of the Old Europe, respect America.
It’s an old fascist tactic to build hatred toward your enemies, and the liberal fascists are so easy to see.
is an oxymoron. But you are too stupid to understand that.
Further, it was BUSH that built hatred towards our alleged enemies. But you are too stupid to understand that.
Especially in Af-rica, which I’m still not convinced Bush knows is a continent, not a country.
Bush is deluded and you’re either blinded by ideology or intentionally denying the facts (or both, there’s always that possibility).
America is held in high esteem around the world these days because, in a regularly scheduled election, we overwhelmingly rejected Bush and his policies. Bush can hardly take credit for that and your throwing out the word “fascist” doesn’t distract from the truth.
I received an email from an old friend in Germany that thanked us for saving America “for the world”.
Your first sentence is untrue and the second is incomprehensible after the first clause.
True, the sentences don’t make any more sense there. But since the site users aren’t very good at reading, all you really need is some “liberals bad” keywords to get lots of stupid grinning approval. It’s hard to break out of that habit.
I agree that a homeland attack is a major concern, but I think the way he went about combatting it was very wrong.
I’m not convinced that the war in Iraq, the Patriot Act, no fly lists or the deparment of Homeland Security have done much to thwart these threats, and may have moved us much closer to a police state.
Blaming him directly for the economy isn’t really accurate. This country has been overextending itself both in government and in private finance for 20 years. We finally have to pay the piper. To blame the greediness of real estate speculators, banks and insurance companies on any president is kind of ridiculous, but if you do, you have to spread the guilt over the last four administrations. This country has been made great by capitalism, but capitalism has it’s ups and downs. Right now we are in a downturn and I don’t know if anyone in the President’s office could have averted the problems.
I disagree on blaming Bush for the economy. If he had put stronger regulations on speculation, and securitization of toxic loans, then we we might not be in as deep as we are now (with the Fed buying bad assets like hotcakes [well, not buying them directly, but taking them as collateral for loan money that may never get paid back] and the taxpayers taking on all the risk.)
Sure, the lead-up to this was outside of any one person’s control, but Bush handled the situation very poorly. He denied that times were tough, and he waited until we were in the toilet before acting–and by the time he did act, the taxpayers had to front the bill.
Much like Katrina, when Bush was cutting cake with McCain instead of being in the situation room with all of the agency heads, planning the recovery operation.
Much like 9/11 when he was taking a vacation during the “Summer of Threat”, or reading a children’s book while the towers burned.
Much like Iraq, where he decided to listen to Rumsfeld and thought we could fight the war on the cheap without enough troops, and cherry-pick the intelligence data–not to mention the out and our lies about a 9/11 Saddam connection.
The President cannot always avert the problems that are facing the country, but Bush didn’t even try. He sat on his hands until the problems got so big he could no longer ignore them. Now we are the ones who have to suffer for his mistakes.
Thankfully, there is only one week left in this disaster of a presidency.
for the love of God, just get off the stage and go away….