Things Fall Apart

[chiburb]

Another fine piece by DU's own Plaid Adder (today's front page)...

Snip:

Because it can't be. Based on his performance last Tuesday I wouldn't hire him to manage a McDonald's, let alone the entire nation. Some of the journalists who were there apparently shared this opinion to some extent; at any rate, they pointed out that Bush's 'answers' were almost always nonresponsive and by and large consisted of reformulations of the "stay the course" rhetoric he had trotted out earlier in his 17-minute opening statement.

They have generally not tried to convey something that was obvious to anyone who tuned in, which is that as nonsensical as Bush's words were - just reading the transcript would make your head bleed - his delivery was even worse. Bush went from halting and wooden to aggressive and angry, with a lot of silences, pauses, and meaningless babble in between. Perhaps the lowest point came when he was asked what he would say was his biggest mistake since 9/11/01. There was silence for several seconds as Bush racked what he calls his brain for an answer, and what he finally said was, "I wish you'd have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it."

For once, no doubt, he was telling the truth.

In between pleading nervousness ("I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with answer, but it hadn't yet") and apologizing for his lack of mental agility ("you just put me under the spot here, and maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one"), a desperate Bush strung together a disjointed, incoherent, and self-subverting apology for his own presidency that is worth quoting in full. Since Bush speaks a language that is somewhat akin to English but largely unintelligible to those who have not been trained to interpret it, I will provide my own translation:


"I would've gone into Afghanistan the way we went into Afghanistan. Even knowing what I know today about the stockpiles of weapons, I still would've called upon the world to deal with Saddam Hussein."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/plaidder/04/19.html

[izzie]

1. Well Bush is making Clinton look like the "Good old days"

What a mess Bush and co has made.

[Beetwasher]

2. One of PA's Best!

Terrific read. This line made me LOL:

Ashcroft was sniffing around everyone's bedroom doors; Cheney was meeting behind closed doors with oil executives; Rumsfeld was busy working on his new 'light and lean' approach to military conquest; and Condoleezza Rice, apparently, was sitting around watching daytime soaps and making paper clip chains. Bush, meanwhile, was where everyone wanted him to be: in Crawford, where the press could take pictures of him being manly and he wouldn't be in anyone's way.

[Plaid Adder]

3. Thanks, Beet

Personally I don't like it as much as most of the others but inspiration doesn't strike every day. And it's hard to keep up, because there's always something worse coming down the pike...like Basra! Jesus! Fallujah wasn't bad enough?

I got your biggest mistake right here, George,

The Plaid Adder

[Beetwasher]

4. This One Just Really Struck a Chord w/ Me

The line about Condi sums up something I've thought for a while and encapsulates it quite well. It's just so clear that she was merely given "busy work" while the rich white boys plotted their nefarious schemes. "Hey Condi, why don't you just go and work on that cold war stuff your so good at, don't worry about what we're working on, it really doesn't concern you." It's so obvious that she and Colin were totally not in on anything and were/are merely trotted out w/ the most expedient lies of the moment. I think they both know it now too, but they're in so deep there's really nothing they can do but keep going.