WP: Bush's Low Profile Questioned as Violence Flares in Iraq

[kskiska]

Saturday, April 10, 2004; Page A01

Explosive violence in Iraq and persistent questions about the administration's handling of terrorist threats before Sept. 11, 2001, have plunged President Bush into one of the most difficult moments of his presidency, as he seeks to maintain public confidence in his leadership while facing what experts say are mostly unattractive options to put U.S. policy on track.

In the face of these challenges, Bush has yielded the stage, remaining largely out of sight at his Texas ranch as others in his administration explain his policies. Bush's silence in the face of mounting U.S. casualties in Iraq and concerns about the administration's timetable for transferring power to the Iraqis has brought criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike.

"If it were I in charge over there, I would have him out early next week to explain this whole thing," said a Republican strategist close to the Bush team who demanded anonymity as a condition of speaking freely about the administration. "He should restate what we're doing over there. He needs to provide a bigger picture to give voters more confidence that we know where we're going."

"It is not helping them for the president to be out of the picture," said Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, national security adviser in the Clinton administration. "If they think the American people are not troubled with what they see every day, starting with Fallujah, and then dead Marines and then the hostages -- if they think that is not roiling the waters, they're sadly mistaken. . . . We have too much at stake in Iraq to lose the American people."

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A355-2004Apr9.html

[kentuck]

1. Cheney wanted him out of the way....

George interrupts all the time...

[drscm]

8. So true, so true...

It's obvious to me the reason * and Cheney are testifying together is so that * can feed Cheney all the answers.

[Snazzy]

2. Vacations

Someone else mentioned this here:

What is the correlation between Bush being on vacation and all hell breaking loose?

I suppose it's just coincidence, since he's always (well, 30% of the time) on vacation, and hell has to break loose sometimes.

But it sure seems like he is always on vacation when the shit the really hits the fan, like the shit is waiting to hit the fan until he goes on vacation.

How many days is he up to anyway? It was 250 end of July.

[Dudley_DUright]

5. More than 40% according to the Washington Post

This is Bush's 33rd visit to his ranch since becoming president. He has spent all or part of 233 days on his Texas ranch since taking office, according to a tally by CBS News. Adding his 78 visits to Camp David and his five visits to Kennebunkport, Maine, Bush has spent all or part of 500 days in office at one of his three retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62524-2004Apr8.html

[Snazzy]

18. Amazing. pResident slacker.

How much of the rest of the time campaigning? How much time at the gym, and going to bed at 10, doing photo ops, and playing Microsoft golf?

I need to make a timeline, major events of the admin and where Bush was.

Or is there one somewhere?

The AWOL president indeed.

[davekriss]

20. 40% versus 4% for the vast majority of workers

"Bush has spent all or part of 500 days in office at one of his three retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency."

40% is 20 weeks of vacation per year. The average American gets 2. Bush should be impeached for this alone!!!

GWB is simply the greatest mis-leader in our history, if not of all time.

[susu369]

27. 233 days = coincidence?

Brought to mind another reference to 233 days (okay, perhaps this post should be in The Meeting Room)

She (Kindasleezy) repeatedly referenced the 233 days the administration was in office when the attacks occurred. She said there was no way Bush could have instituted the kind of systemic and bureaucratic changes needed in government to address terrorism during that time.

[JoFerret]

22. Gravity's Rainbow theory

.

[osaMABUSh]

3. It's time for a Presidential address or a fake news conference

Shrub got's some 'splaining to do.

Remember that "News Conference" on Iraq about a year ago where every question and answer was scripted? Well, it's that time again or, perhaps, some "serious looking" address from the Oval office.

Rove realizes he has to make the president look engaged again.

Screw it, on second thought, let's just raise the terror alert color.

[MO_Dem]

4. Has Duhbya been actually been seen in TX?

Or is he hiding in that bunker that he hid in on 9-11? Somewhere in Nebraska, I think?

They could put up a cardboard cutout of the Duh?bya out in front of the WH, with a tape recording of his speech playing (by now everybody knows he only has one speech, "tax cuts, bring 'em to jushtish, my most important job is protecting.......er, uhhhhhh, ummmmmm, I'll protect 'Marica every time!"

[Timefortruth]

34. Good point.

He could be anywhere hiding from the press. Maybe he is getting a brain transplant so he can answer some questions.

Where's Dick?

[54anickel]

6. un-effin-believable. These guys think he'll take a SHORT TERM hit

in the polls!

Bush's advisers expect political damage to the president, at least in the short term, given what has happened in Iraq in the past 10 days. "I think the American people know the president is resolved in this matter to complete our work," White House communications director Dan Bartlett said yesterday. "We have nothing to suggest that they don't support him on the war on terror. . . . I think you can expect polls to drop during this very difficult period."

snip>

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Bush is "absolutely" losing the public at a quickening pace. He said people are flooding him with pleas "to get us out of there."

"It's a disquieting feeling people have. They think the president does not have a plan, and he doesn't. . . . We are on the verge of losing control of Iraq."

Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa) said events in Iraq suggest that Bush and other administration officials should anticipate a new line of questioning of the assessment, at the time of the invasion, that U.S. forces would be greeted as liberators and face only slight resistance. This assumption "clearly is in doubt" considering recent events, he said.


Oh and look here, the lil idjit is going to grace us all with a photo-op appearance on Sunday. :puke:

Administration officials said Bush will discuss Iraq in his radio address today and will reemerge Sunday, when he goes to nearby Fort Hood to meet with the families of soldiers in Iraq. He will be out in public again on Monday when he appears at a news conference with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

[54anickel]

7. ARRRGH, Here's more!

Administration officials argue that the public has digested Bush's long-standing message that the war on terrorism will go on for years and has accepted that stabilizing and rebuilding Iraq will take a long time. The public, they say, is prepared to see that commitment through to the end. The risk for Bush is that he and other administration officials have not been explicit enough in saying that the rebuilding of Iraq may come at the cost of continued U.S. casualties long after the end of the invasion, and not just of taxpayer dollars.

"We've been very careful about trying to predict too far into the future," Bartlett said. "Despite the violence of the last 10 days, the Iraqi people are better off and their future is brighter than their past. That doesn't mean we don't have an obligation to educate the public about how difficult the task is going forward."


Kerry needs to re-think his position as well. Risk being accused of flip-flopping, who cares! He needs to be honest and trustworthy and his statements are not conducive to either IMHO.

As a result, Kerry is not in a position, nor is he inclined, to advocate a withdrawal of or significant reduction in U.S. troops, which some Democrats, including Sen. Robert C. Byrd (W.Va.), are urging. Indeed, Kerry has suggested that more troops may be needed -- a more hawkish position than many Democrats are comfortable with -- and he campaigned on a platform of expanding the U.S. military overall by 40,000 troops in the short term to protect the military from spreading itself too thin with the simultaneous operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[drfemoe]

16. *NOTHING* fumes me more

than when they say "the American people know" .. "the American people UNDERSTAND" ..

Guess what? No I do NOT Understand. Get a clue. That is so patronizing. They wouldn't know that of course.

[July]

29. Yes, I just love it when they tell us what we think.

And we always seem to think just what would support their actions the most, don't we?

[jimshoes]

28. Ya think?

Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa) said events in Iraq suggest that Bush and other administration officials should anticipate a new line of questioning of the assessment, at the time of the invasion, that U.S. forces would be greeted as liberators and face only slight resistance. This assumption "clearly is in doubt" considering recent events, he said.
------------------------------------------------
No shit.

[jean]

9. Will he serve up some ham in Iraq on Sunday? Nah.

[leftofthedial]

10. Oh shut up

and watch him drive

[0007]

11. junior where ever you are? Come out, come out come out where you are!

There are some men that want to see you and talk to you. Why are you hiding junior? I thought only Saddam Hussein had a hole to hide in, but I guess all dignitaries have a hole to hide in, 'eh?

[Layman]

26. Hide and Seek...

Tag, or how about King of the Hill? Our fratbrat flyboy just wants to have fun while others die. Little bit like Nero and his violin, no? Except our very own emperor is tone deaf.

[PSU84]

12. 500 days of vacation

The Washington Post reported on Friday April 9 that since bush was installed as president he has spent 500 days at his pig farm in texas, at Camp David, or at the bush compound in Kennebunkport, Maine.
He has spent more than 40 percent of his presidency on vacation. And the rest campaigning.

[freeforall]

13. Let him hide

It makes people question, and it's obvious what kind of a "leader" he is - a chickenshit!

And where the hell is Kerry? What hole is he hiding in? I haven't heard anything from him for awhile.

Dems should be condemning this renewed violence and speaking of their plans for Iraq withdrawl.

Good God! You guys are up shit creek with leadership like this - on both sides.

[Bill ORights]

21. "Let him hide"

But Kerry isn't hiding. Isn't he in the hospital for a few days?
Bill Orights

[sadiesworld]

24. Kerry is out of the hospital and is campaigning, trying to raise $.

He has been focusing on economic issues, but has made several statements re Messopotamia.

BTW, welcome to DU. :hi:

[PfcHammer]

14. i'm sorely disappointed with all of you

* is a manager by training *cough*. as such, he has surrounded
himself with the best and brightest.

...by chance, they have all turned out to be as bad as * :(

[Steven_S]

15. In a recent statement to reporters

Our glorious, war-time president said. "I'm real concerned with the situation in Iraq. Real concerned. I wish they'd stop killin' each other over there, now watch this cast!

[rocktivity]

17. He's practicing his lines for his puppet show with Dick Cheney

But seriously folks, I think he's using his vacation to cut down on the negative press. Since Kerry is being smart enough to keep a low profile in terms of criticizing the invasion, the media doesn't get to bash him for "politicizing" it. So it's either more bad press for Bush, or none at all!

:headbang:
rocknation

[dArKeR]

19. Coalition control crumbles in Iraq - MG

A year after seizing Baghdad with much fanfare, United States-led forces struggled on Friday to maintain crumbling control of much of central and southern Iraq against stiff resistance from Sunni and Shiite insurgents.

Occupation troops, facing a June 30 deadline for restoring Iraqi self-rule, were locked in fierce fighting or forced to back off in cities west, east and south of the capital as well as the key southern port of Basra.

The scenes of combat were in stark contrast to images of confident US troops rolling through the capital a year ago on Friday, greeted by enthusiastic Iraqis as they toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein.

http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=33983

[xchrom]

23. the very essence of

behaving as though the chaos and murderous mayhem in iraq doesn't matter to him.
now there is no way he can't be made vulnerable on that -- if the right people choose to hold his feet to the fire.

[Malva Zebrina]

25. I think actually, that he loves that image of himself

having the power to kill all those people--I really think he enjoys that --it makes him feel real important-- he is after all, as he said quite proudly, a "war president" and he has no sense of right and wrong, or of his own evilness and insanity.



In his imagination, that means he can vicariously be the brave warrior he never was--remember the trip he made to that place where special forces were training in urban combat? He could get there fast enough for photo ops and now that the number killed head toward seven hundred, with no end in sight--he disappears--or goes out into the dry gulch where there are a few sparse saplings with green leaves, followed by six or seven psychophants who fawn after his ass as he points out something in the sky.


I bet he is itching to get dressed up in all of that gear and show it off to all of us. Why doesn't he grab the sweetheart, dress up in a disguise so they look like an ordinary couple, and get his ass over there to Iraq. Then they both can see the results of their insanity and stupidity--as if either of them would care.

[kskiska]

33. I just read most of John Dean's book today

His view is that * thinks of the presidency and himself as "lofty," which explains his insistence on certain decorum in the White House (but this contradicts his profanity, even to female aides, which Nixon would never display). This could be why he never mingles with the masses, even on foreign trips. He only deigns to meet with other "leaders," like himself. This also explains his love of dressing up in costumes to display his "loftiness."

[Crachet2004]

30. Almost time for them to start blaming each other.

A few sacrificial goats will have to go. But Bush is not going to get off so easily.

Iraq is an albatross he cannot shed.

He did it and the whole world knows it. It becomes clearer with each new revelation.

He cannot possibly be above 40 in job approval...I simply do not believe it.

[young_at_heart]

31. What about his low profile on 9/11?

Sitting in the classroom for 1/2 hour while we were being attacked isn't showing much "leadership" is it?

[Malva Zebrina]

32. It's all a part of the media game and I am sick of it

all that is necessary is for one honest man to tell the truth, and to tell it consistently and honestly and to have a pulpit and access to the American people.

All of this crap is soap opera bullshit.

Let us get back to honesty and back to being real human beings again.

This is all crap, designed by the media to titillate us and keep us tuned to their Bush ball licking.

We need a strong revolution ---NOW

[Robbien]

35. Iraq in flames; Bush shows off really big bass he caught for TV fishing sh

Iraq in flames; Bush shows off really big bass he caught for TV fishing show

That is the headline today at the Canoe. Gotta love those plain speaking Canadians.

[cornfedyank]

36. they could say * is studying the problem, but....

he does not read books or newspapers.
smart as half a cup of dirt.