and (mostly) did not flub words and knew his lines so well that sometimesheranthemalltogethersoyoureallycouldn'thearwhathewassaying.
Not so Dumbya?
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white_house/july-dec05/bush_12-16-05.htmlINTERVIEW: PRESIDENT BUSH
December 16, 2005
In a wide-ranging interview, President George W. Bush hailed the elections in Iraq as having geopolitical import, outlined his hopes for marginalizing the militants attacking targets throughout Iraq and refused to comment on reported spying by the National Security Agency on people in the United States without a court order.
The road ahead and deciding to go to war
JIM LEHRER: You say the violence is not going to be affected by this election in and of itself. Have you asked Secretary Rumsfeld and the military commanders for some kind of projection as to when the violence is in fact going to start diminishing?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, interestingly enough, General Casey today gave us a report for November that the amount of suiciders has gone down from 60 to 29. I'm not exactly sure of the exact time table, but it was a substantial reduction. However, one suicide bomber well placed is--you know, it's a very effective device. Obviously, it's effective on who it kills, but it's also effective on getting on our TV screens. And, you know, I think if we have a policy of zero violence, it won't be met, but the policy of getting the Iraqis in the fight and marginalizing those who are trying to stir up trouble will be effective. And the definition of victory which is really an important thing for the American people to understand is that we have an ally in the war on terror, that democracy is able to sustain itself and defend itself, and the Iraqi people feel that the security forces that we've trained up are capable of defending themselves against the violent.
JIM LEHRER: Mr. President, does that go counter to most definitions of victory in a war?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Yes.
JIM LEHRER: I mean, the violence goes on but that we have victory anyhow?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, I think that this is a different kind of a war. I mean, in World War II we think of the USS Missouri and Japan-- We surrender. However, if you think about World War II, there was still a mission to be accomplished, that Harry Truman saw through, which is to help an enemy become a democracy. We achieved a, by kicking Saddam Hussein out, you know, a milestone. But there's still work to help this country develop its own democracy and there's no question there's difficulties because of the past history and the fact that he starved an infrastructure and the reconstruction efforts have been uneven.
But victory is, against a guy like Zarqawi, is bringing him to justice. Victory is denying safe haven to al-Qaida, and victory is marginalizing those who would destroy democracy.
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