It is burning up the threads at HuffPost. If the atrocities of the last eight years weren't bad enough, this has brought a final outpouring of liberal indignation upon upon a man who have become a symbol of disaster all around the world. What the heck am I talking about? It's an interview W. did with Charlie Gibson where he basically tells it all. A seemingly [note my use of this term] repentant Bush, appear to apologize for some of the destruction that he has caused. Trust me, you've never seen chimpy this humble. The question I'm asking is why is it that bad people always find their moment of enlightenment after doing their damage? It's like that "gracious" concession speech that McCain gave on election night after calling Obama virtually every dirty word in the Republican playbook. You'd think if Bush was this honest and upfront all along, things would not be as bad as they are today.
A feisty Bush appears humbled in a recent interview with Charlie
Gibson
Well not to beleaguer the point, let's get straight to the interview. George finally admitted that he was unprepared for war:
GIBSON: What were you most unprepared for?
BUSH: Well, I think I was unprepared for war. In other words, I didn't campaign and say, "Please vote for me, I'll be able to handle an attack." In other words, I didn't anticipate war. Presidents -- one of the things about the modern presidency is that the unexpected will happen.
and asked about the biggest regret of his Presidency, the usually defiant Bush responded:
BUSH: I don't know -- the biggest regret of all the presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in Iraq. A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein. It wasn't just people in my administration; a lot of members in Congress, prior to my arrival in Washington D.C., during the debate on Iraq, a lot of leaders of nations around the world were all looking at the same intelligence. And, you know, that's not a do-over, but I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess.
Wow Mr. Bush, you had that in you all this time and you are only admitting this now. Why does this feels so much like listening to the confession tape of a criminal?
Then Charlie pressed on:
GIBSON: If the intelligence had been right, would there have been an Iraq war?
BUSH: Yes, because Saddam Hussein was unwilling to let the inspectors go in to determine whether or not the U.N. resolutions were being upheld. In other words, if he had had weapons of mass destruction, would there have been a war? Absolutely.
GIBSON: No, if you had known he didn't.
BUSH: Oh, I see what you're saying. You know, that's an interesting question. That is a do-over that I can't do. It's hard for me to speculate.
Oh shut the fuck up! so you are quick to do reverse analysis when the outcome is favorable to you but if it's not, you suddenly can't speculate. Bush probably believes that everyone thinks down at his level, but anyone who is sensible enough already knew that he had war on his mind long before taking office. September 11 was just the perfect excuse for him and his criminal gang to pursue their fetish.
Even more interesting were his thoughts on the election:
GIBSON: What did you think of the campaign?
BUSH: I thought my candidate for President, John McCain, had a tough headwind -- for two reasons. One, rarely does the American people -- do the American people give a political party three terms. That in itself was difficult for him. They did one time since World War II; that happened to be for President 41, my dear dad. Obviously the economic situation made it awfully difficult for John McCain to get a message out. And I felt that Barack Obama ran a very disciplined campaign. I mean, he inspired a lot of people and was in a position to take advantage of the inspiration. It was well organized, he raised a lot of money, and ran a textbook campaign.
Yeah right, McSame had a very tough headwind: IT WAS YOU! nice try brushing it off with the 'economy stupid' excuse and Americans were not just wary of one party ruling for three terms, they were particularly sick of you and they feared that the old man would continue the very same misguided policies. However I must admit, his thoughts on Obama: "I felt that Barack Obama ran a very disciplined campaign. I mean, he inspired a lot of people and was in a position to take advantage of the inspiration. It was well organized, he raised a lot of money, and ran a textbook campaign." are well taken, I'll cut him that much slack.
Now for la pièce de résistance:
GIBSON: Was the election in any way a repudiation of the Bush administration?
BUSH: I think it was a repudiation of Republicans. And I'm sure some people voted for Barack Obama because of me. I think most people voted for Barack Obama because they decided they wanted him to be in their living room for the next four years explaining policy. In other words, they made a conscious choice to put him in as President.
GIBSON: But both candidates wound up criticizing you a lot.
BUSH: Yes, well, that's what happens when you're the incumbent during a tough economic time, but --
GIBSON: Hurt?
BUSH: No, not really. You know, I've been around politics a long time. Remember, I was the guy in 2000 who campaigned for change. I campaigned for change when I ran for governor of Texas. The only time I really didn't campaign for change is when I was running for reelection.
and another treat:
GIBSON: Do you feel the divisions are deeper, the enmities perhaps a little stronger, the language a little tougher now than it was January 20, 2001?
BUSH: Yes, I do. I do. I think -- I don't know, the close election created some pretty harsh language. But once I was President I think people decided that, well, let's try to work with him, and I said, I'd like to work with you, and we did some pretty good things. But having said that, Washington has always been politics. I mean, if you, like, for example, study the early Presidents, there's some pretty tough language when it came to Abraham Lincoln, or the relationship between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
So I didn't go into this naively, I knew it would be tough. But I also knew that the President has the responsibility to try to elevate the tone. And, frankly, it just didn't work, as well as I'd like to have it work.
There are a thousand things on my lips that I could utter but I won't say a word more, I'll let you have your way with it in comments. Meet me down there.
You can read the extended transcript of Gibson's interview with Bush here.