L.A. Times: Bush Never Admitted Error (Except for All Those Times He Did)
The L.A. Times reports on a round of Obama mea culpas:
“This is a self-induced injury that I’m angry about,” [President Obama] added, “and we’re going to make sure we get it fixed.”
To the network anchors he repeated a surprising mantra: “I screwed up.”
Obama’s language was striking in part because the man he replaced in the White House, George W. Bush, famously refused to admit error, at least until his final days in office.
He never admitted error?
Ever?
Amid questions about prewar intelligence, the White House is acknowledging that President Bush was incorrect when he said in his State of the Union address that Iraq recently had sought significant quantities of uranium in Africa.
That one wasn’t even wrong, yet he still admitted error.
Meanwhile, President Bush on Tuesday said he takes responsibility for the federal government’s failures in responding to Hurricane Katrina.
“Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government and to the extent the federal government didn’t fully do its job right, I take responsibility,” Bush said during a joint news conference with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
The White House has acknowledged for the first time that a key moment in post-war Iraq, the declaration by George Bush that “we have found the weapons of mass destruction”, was based on intelligence known in Washington to be false.
On his last tour to Europe as US President, Bush — who once had only one line for opponents: “You are either with us or against us” — conceded that his “gun-slinging” rhetoric made the world believe he was a “guy really anxious for war”.
Bush said he now wished he had used a different tone on the global stage.
In an exclusive interview to The Times, London, the US President expressed regret at divisions in the international community created by the war in Iraq.
“I think that in retrospect I could have used a different tone, a different rhetoric,” he said.
Listing these in one place is like putting out a bug zapper for insectlike lefties coming to gloat about the fact that, indeed, Bush made mistakes.
Yes, lefties, it’s true. Over eight years, he made some mistakes. Your guy will too.
In fact, if his first few days are any indication, he’ll make plenty of them.
Every President makes mistakes.
The difference is when Bush mis-spoke or made a mistake,it was on cable,talk shows,nightly news,and front pages 24/7.
When Mr. 57 states who tries to get into the White House through the window makes mistakes,it is all because he cares so much and is trying so hard.
We get “Obama is just to perfect,there’s nothing to make fun of” .
Well here is a serious mistake in the making:
Obama not bowing to top brass, yet
By Gareth Porter
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KB04Ak02.html
Obama refusing to listen to the Generals and make decisions based on conditions on the ground are consistent with his idiotic stance on this in the Primary debates:
Hillary & Obama Don’t Care What Commanders Say, They are ‘Committed to Withdrawal’
Amy Proctor
April 17, 2008
http://amyproctor.squarespace.com/blog/2008/4/17/hillary-obama-dont-care-what-commanders-say-they-are-committ.html?lastPage=true#comment1432448
(via Amy Proctor blog)
Gibson:
SENATOR CLINTON:
MR. GIBSON:
.
SENATOR OBAMA:
This great military advice coming from the man who is on record as stated that if he knew then what he knows now about the success of the surge (which has won the Iraq war)he still would have voted against it.
“admitting mistakes” just does not seem to capture the magnitude of this mans idiocy.
Baxter Greene (8035ae) — 2/3/2009 @ 11:21 pmWe still live in a democracy.
sleepy (09c352) — 2/3/2009 @ 11:33 pmThe military doesn’t make policy, it follows it.
here’s a good discussion of the issues
I think that the view of democracy that folks like sleepy has is so … quaint. When a Republican is in office, dissent is the highest form of patriotism. When a dirty little socialist is in office, all must go along with the C in C.
Convenient, that.
JD (5535b9) — 2/3/2009 @ 11:42 pmMake that jug-eared, dirty little socialist dork, JD.
daleyrocks (5d22c0) — 2/3/2009 @ 11:52 pm“I think that the view of democracy that folks like sleepy has is so … quaint.”
“When a Republican is in office, dissent is the highest form of patriotism.”
Democracy is not quaint, it’s how we do things around here. You don’t like it, leave.
Dissent is a form of patriotism in civilian life. But the military follows orders.
Bush was a disaster. Full stop.
sleepy (09c352) — 2/3/2009 @ 11:55 pmRepublicans seem to like Palin.
G’head son, play your cards the way you want, and lose.
When you grow up people will listen.
“When a dirty little socialist is in office, all must go along with the C in C.”
sleepy (09c352) — 2/4/2009 @ 12:00 amThe president is the C in C of the military, not of the people.
Looks like someone has been mixing NyQuil with wine coolers again.
Eric Blair (1aa50b) — 2/4/2009 @ 12:08 amIt’s not about whether the President has the authority to tell Commanders what to do,it is about the fact that Obama has no idea what he is doing so him overriding the commanders on the ground is a idiotic as his opposition to the surge or signing executive orders banning lobbyist than
turning right around and hiring lobbyist.
Withdrawing troops from Iraq to appease his timeline but allowing all the gains in Iraq to crash in flames is absolutely and pathetically stupid.
But this is just a distraction isn’t it sleepy.
don’t address the pathetic lack of intelligence and judgment by your Messiah,just talk about Bush.
Just get back down on your knees and keep praying to your savior:
Obama Shrine [Mark Steyn]
A reader took this picture today at a street fair at Hayes and Octavia in San Francisco, of all places:
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTQzNWU3YjliYzQwNDQwYjE1Y2U0MzA5NjU1MTYyZWY=
Yea,freeing over 50 millions people and keeping this country safe is a real sign of failure.
Baxter Greene (8035ae) — 2/4/2009 @ 12:12 amEric – I think you’d be diluting the alcohol content of NyQuil if you mixed it with wine coolers. Accept no substitutes.
daleyrocks (5d22c0) — 2/4/2009 @ 12:26 amHey, sleepy, are you interested in refuting the Dog Trainer’s false claims?
John Hitchcock (fb941d) — 2/4/2009 @ 1:10 amDemocracy is not quaint, it’s how we do things around here. You don’t like it, leave.
Dissent is a form of patriotism in civilian life.
Those two statements juxtaposed is an amazing illustration of self-contradiction. It’s saying Democracy = dissent, so, in other words:
Dissent is a form of patriotism…You don’t like it, leave.
I’ll leave it to others to guess whether sleepy’s unpatriotic, anti-democratic, or just plain confused.
Apogee (f4320c) — 2/4/2009 @ 1:20 amActually, the US has not been a democracy any of these past 230 years. 😉
John Hitchcock (fb941d) — 2/4/2009 @ 1:38 amDissent is now the highest form of racism.
Perfect Sense (0922fa) — 2/4/2009 @ 1:50 amWhat is ironic about sleepy’s statment: “if you don’t like it, leave”, is that he probably was the vanguard of those who ridiculed the 1960’s admonishment “America, love it or leave it”.
Dr. K (6601b8) — 2/4/2009 @ 2:44 amOK, serious question: just how long did the research for the posting take? Did you have to get up out of your computer chair to find this stuff, oter than to get another can of Mountain Dew? And if you were able to do this, why couldn’t the reporters and editors of The Los Amngeles Times?
The inquisitive Dana (3e4784) — 2/4/2009 @ 3:44 amStarbucks cut off their wi-fi until they pay their tab?
the insomniac AD (6218df) — 2/4/2009 @ 3:49 amI get a sense a lot of blog readers think the whole world is like Fox News, where they get to spout right-wing nonsense and no one is around to call them on it.
The beautiful thing is that the tipping point was reached sometime around 2006 and the coalition of right-wing religious zealots, militarists and hard-core anti-tax crusaders melted down to about 25 percent of the population.
The wingnutosphere, Fox News and talkradio keep up the illusion that it’s more than that, but the voters are wise and, more and more, just laugh at the noise machine/echo chamber.
Liberals use the internet to organize and act, whereas conservatives, for the most part, use it to try and salve their insatiable intellectual insecurities.
Hax Vobiscum (edacf7) — 2/4/2009 @ 4:15 amSo many targets…
The voters are wise, which is why they deserve the crap that Pelosi & Reid are dishing out, and they’ll get to pay for.
Internet organization by Liberals seems to have a high component of fraud, whereas Conservatives devote themselves to the world of commerce so that their families can live a better life, and they can better their communities by actually interacting with people instead of pixels.
And then there is the constant problem of projection…
the insomniac AD (6218df) — 2/4/2009 @ 4:32 amI imagine there is a lot of insecurity floating around the newsroom over at the Dog Trainer about now,
isn’t there Hax?
Hax Vobiscum wrote:
Yet, amazingly enough, John McCain got 46% of the vote. I suppose that I’ll have to go back to do remedial math, ’cause I didn’t think that 25% was all that close to 46%.
You learn something new every day on Patterico’s Pontifications, a full-service blog if there ever was one!
The mathematically challenged Dana (3e4784) — 2/4/2009 @ 4:43 amIf Obama keeps doing what he is doing, there will be lots of apologies…and tears.
Joe (17aeff) — 2/4/2009 @ 4:55 amFox News, huh? The ratings are instructive. Check out Glenn Beck in the 5:00 hour, beating all 3 other cable news networks combined. There seems to be a hell of a lot of those 25%ers.
Pablo (99243e) — 2/4/2009 @ 5:08 amI think Obama apologised too easily. It’s too early to say “I screwed up…” Sends a mixed message.
Emperor7 who wants DRJ back! (0c8c2c) — 2/4/2009 @ 6:07 amI recall Bush saying years ago Abu Ghraib was his biggest mistake. And he was correct. It was symptomatic of the mishandling of the Iraq occupation which hurt Bush’s legacy (and the GOP party). Fortunately he was enough of a statesman not to cut and run and to work towards some sort of victory (which was acheived under Petraeus’ leadership).
Joe (17aeff) — 2/4/2009 @ 6:24 amBush is still paying for that silly press conference where he was asked his biggest mistake and couldn’t think of one. I was watching that and wishing I had his cellphone number to call and tell him to make something up. Like, “Holding this press conference may be it.” That would have gotten a laugh. Bush just wasn’t a very good communicator.
On the other hand, Obama should just tape a standard apology because I think he is going to have lots to apologize for if his first two weeks is any indication.
I think Hansen is putting it a bit too strongly but there is a trend.
The lefties think conservatism is dead. I think Obama will produce another 1994 unless he wises up very fast. Like next week.
Mike K (2cf494) — 2/4/2009 @ 6:36 amRidiculous and reductive exercise, Abu Ghraib’s excesses were committed by a handful of enlisted personnel who were properly disciplined and in some case jailed. Some officials like the General who ran the place, name escapes me, right, tried to make a virtue of her incompetence, but that ultimately fell through. That apology to the Qatari, pro Salafi, Muslim Brotherhood based
narciso (57971e) — 2/4/2009 @ 6:39 amArabist network of Al Jazeera, was among one of the few truly shameful things about this administration, prostrating himself before the well of brutal warlords, despots, and keepers of the Mukharabats. Where their idea of decent treatment is pulling out your fingernails and hanging you, from a bloody meathook, lamenting Saddam’s fall because it meant they might be next.
Sleepy can’t be all three?
GM Roper who wants DRJ back on Patterico's Pontifications (85dcd7) — 2/4/2009 @ 6:45 amWhen you grow up people will listen.
Anyone else find this as hilarious as I did? The extent of irony – free postings by the moonbats never fail to amaze.
Dmac (49b16c) — 2/4/2009 @ 6:46 amnarciso–you miss the point. Abu Ghraib was part of Bush’s biggest mistake (screwing up the early Iraq occupation) because it was a the result of a “taking off the gloves policy” instituted by Rumsfeld changing DoD interrogation rules (becuase he was mad Tenent was getting all the credit at the CIA). Those handful of enlisted men (and women) were taking orders from in many cases civilian interrogators who told them to “tune up” the prisoners. And it was not just Ms. England and her dog colar, a couple of prisoners were beaten to death at Abu Ghraib.
Now as bad as all that was, it was nothing compared to what our enemies were and still are doing. Unfortunately there is a double standard. The problem was we were an occupying force and that mess (when it broke in the MSM, fueled by cell phone pictures taken by the guards themselves), especially with the sexual stuff in a repressed society, helped fuel the Iraqi insurgency. Insurgent attacks went up exponentially after the Abu Ghraib story broke. Which is why General Petraeus was adamently against any such behavior (and in fact punished any of his command involved in anything involving prisoner abuse in Mosul before he was promoted) because it defeats a counter insurgency action. Petraeus’ model was working closely with locals, on the ground, winning their trust. You do not do that grabing any young man on the street (which many of the Abu Graib detainees were, mixed in with real terrorists) having them make naked pyramids and shoving glow sticks up their asses.
That is why I said Abu Ghraib was symptomatic. Was it the cause of the Iraq Insurgency? Hell no. But was it a sign that Rumsfeld and others running the show at that time did not get the Iraq Insurgency? Hell yes. And that is why Bush was correct to apologize and change course. And that is what he did.
Joe (17aeff) — 2/4/2009 @ 6:55 amOne thing the Times does well is to give the Obama moonbats plenty of rope to hang themselves in public. Tonight there are below freezing forecasts for 90% of the US and this idiot thinks:
California’s farms and vineyards could vanish by the end of the century, and its major cities could be in jeopardy, if Americans do not act to slow the advance of global warming, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said Tuesday.
In his first interview since taking office last month, the Nobel-prize-winning physicist offered some of the starkest comments yet on how seriously President Obama’s cabinet views the threat of climate change, along with a detailed assessment of the administration’s plans to combat it.
I know he has a Nobel Prize but so does Gore. This is the quality of thinking we will see from the Obama administration, I fear.
Mike K (2cf494) — 2/4/2009 @ 6:56 amNo, we don’t.
We live in a republic.
Rob Crawford (6c262f) — 2/4/2009 @ 7:22 amNo, it wasn’t. It was the result of a failure of officers to supervise those under their command, and one of those under their command being an abusive POS.
Rob Crawford (6c262f) — 2/4/2009 @ 7:31 amWhat bothers me most about this is that instead of focusing on the story that Obama continues to mess up by picking people who have “issues,” we’re all being told how REFRESHING it is that Obama admits that he screwed up. Huh? It’s not refreshing at all. He was backing Daschle up to the very end. It’s easy to say you made a mistake AFTER everyone in the entire free world has already pointed that out for you.
Karen (dda662) — 2/4/2009 @ 7:34 amAnd what leads you to believe that this was the result of orders from the top?
That doesn’t sound like people who were doing what they were told to do.
Pablo (99243e) — 2/4/2009 @ 7:44 amIndeed, Karen. But remember:
Pablo (99243e) — 2/4/2009 @ 7:47 amPablo, apparently Slo – Joe’s timetable for the first six months of testing was a severely conservative assessment.
Dmac (49b16c) — 2/4/2009 @ 7:58 amYes, insurgent attacks went up, after Abu Ghraib, if you post incendiary images, 24/7 without context, like the New York Times, & Sy Hersh of the New Yorker, of course you’re going to give the enemy propaganda. Abu Ghraib happened in part because of a controversy between the Army Field manuals and the New interrogation rules. When proper procedures were followed with KSM, Abu Zubeydah and even Mohammed Manea Al Quahtani, the 20th hijacker, with guidance from and information to the Gitmo, and other now shuttered facilities in Eastern Europe, has their effect
narciso (57971e) — 2/4/2009 @ 8:02 amI laughed when I read the Dog Trainer’s line about the refreshing contrast between Obama and Bush–in admitting mistakes. Leave aside the dubious nature of the claim that Dubya never admitted a mistake.
But as Michelle Malkin pointed out today, Dubya managed to get all but one of his Cabinet picks confirmed within 2 weeks of his inauguration–even though the election challenge by Gore gave him a very shortened transition time. The Anointed One had set up an Office of the President elect and started his transition plannig even before the election. You don’t have to admit a mistake you did not make–so this “refreshing change” talk from the Dog Trainer is a load of canine excrement. But then why should the Trainer change its bad habits? May as well go down with all guns blazing.
As for Obama? He’s starting to look like Jimmy Carter squared in the incompetence department.
Mike Myers (674050) — 2/4/2009 @ 8:17 amHax Vobiscum, I get the sense that left-wing commenters think that the whole world is like the Los Angeles Times, where you get to make up stuff and repeat long debunked myths without being called on it.
SPQR (72771e) — 2/4/2009 @ 8:23 amSPQR – Hax is just a loyal foot soldier in service of Teh Narrative.
JD (5535b9) — 2/4/2009 @ 8:26 amLooks like another letter to the editor is in order. Sigh. It would be smart to simply keep a template on file where one only need fill in the date(s) of screwup(s).
…and, more and more, just laugh at the noise machine/echo chamber.
Absolutely! Like we did when Nancy Pelosi insisted, “500 million Americans will lose their jobs if the stimulus package doesn’t immediately pass!”
Dana (be9504) — 2/4/2009 @ 8:39 amYeah, Hax, I’m laughing my tush off.
I’m going to try filing for a Geithner-exemption on my 1040 this year…….
Techie (6b5d8d) — 2/4/2009 @ 8:44 amTechie, call your Congresscritters and demand that they support the Rangel Rule.
Pablo (99243e) — 2/4/2009 @ 8:46 amShe slipped — the 500 million number will be the results of the next census, conducted by “estimate”. Oddly, only strong Democrat counties will show an increase in population.
Rob Crawford (6c262f) — 2/4/2009 @ 9:38 amSorry if this is a repeat but I don’t have time to read all 43 comments. Obama saying I screwed up is a lot different from “the white house is acknowledging” or “I could have used a different tone”. You are wasting your energy if you really think you are going to change anyone’s mind about Bush with this weak example.
Oldtimer (d68c7b) — 2/4/2009 @ 10:01 amWell, Oldtimer, the goal against Bush was to get to say “I made a mistake” so that could be run on the news nightly. You know I am right about that. Everyone makes mistakes, but GW Bush wasn’t going to help the press with that bit.
Remember hearing how “stoopid” GW Bush, many times by people on this forum? Well, check out this bit form the person who is third in line for the Presidency:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8hMJVXt09E&
So, no, GW Bush wasn’t going to hand ammunition to the press that simply. But notice that we aren’t hearing much about President Obama’s “goofed” comment?
Eric Blair (1aa50b) — 2/4/2009 @ 10:11 amBush said he was proud of the way katrina was handled. he didnt tell how fema paid semi drivers $38.50 per hour round the clock for 2 weeks NOT TO UNLOAD THE SUPPLIES THAT WERE PAID FOR BY THE ARMY CORP OF ENG.. at least 700 trucks were contained on government property at CRAIG AIR BASE AND AT LEAST ANOTHER 700 WERE HELD AT STENNIS SPACE CENTER. these drivers were given 3 meals a day and a shower besides there hourly pay to sit in a line 24 hours a day 7 days a week AND NEVER LEAVE! check these facts with Ben Kwan of tv 9/10 in cadillac michigan. he ran the story, but no one listened! thanks W!
katrina survivor (2528f7) — 2/4/2009 @ 11:09 amI BLAME BUSH. AND, KYOTO.
JD (5535b9) — 2/4/2009 @ 11:36 amAlso, THOSE CHEMTRAILS ABOVE MY HEAD INTERFERE WITH MY DIRECTV RECEPTION
Techie (6b5d8d) — 2/4/2009 @ 11:53 amI MISSED THE CAPSLOCK TALKINGPOINTS MEETING. WHAT UNAMERICAN PROPAGANDA ARE WE SUPPOSED TO BE SPREADING TODAY?
John Hitchcock (fb941d) — 2/4/2009 @ 12:08 pmkatrina survivor <—– if you are a survivor, does that mean you were one of the dumb asses that stayed behind? If you didnt stay behind and left, that means you’re not a survivor, you weren’t even there, so whats to survive? you’re just a liar, either way, NOT GOOD. Yeah, your cred. just got flushed down the toilet.
Just face it moonies, you elected a substitute teacher…
slizzle (4c3b4d) — 2/4/2009 @ 12:15 pmIt’s not just that Bush never admitted mistakes, it’s that he made that attitude part of his political persona. His base ate it with a spoon and still does, as many of the comments on this forum show.
It worked brilliantly for the first few years of his presidency, as the stonewalling of accountability was successfully portrayed as a blend of cocksurety and “outsider” brio, coasting along on the inertia of 9/11, when the press for a time voluntarily banned any and all criticism of Bush.
Many conservatives still believe inveighing against the “liberal media” is a way to achieve a kind of street cred as an independent thinker, rather than an unwitting, slightly paranoid confession that contemporary American conservatism is so spent it can’t even speak for itself in the world’s freest media.
When Katrina hit, failure as a theme reached critical mass and the Bush attitude that anyone who questioned him is of dubious patriotism went from being a charming quirk to a disastrous liability, in the estimations of swing voters.
Bush devotees, of course, didn’t get the memo. They kept on making every excuse under the sun for the president, running, hiding, blaming and never, ever, accepting responsibility.
Economy tanking? Clinton’s fault, of course. Never mind that Republicans have been in full control, it’s um, well, bad luck, or that famous “trifecta” Bush claimed dragged his economy down. Of course, any shred of good economic news was always seized on as proof tax cuts are a special kind of economic magic and Bush is the Wizard.
Taking responsibility for failure is just the start, the problem swing voters have with a lot of conservatives is that they can’t even acknowledge that there is a failure. Conservatives have been “winning” the war in Iraq since the day we invaded, utterly unaware that voters have noticed that the war remains unwon.
That’s why the ”era of responsibility” Obama evoked resonates with the new Democratic majority and why the wingnutosphere is still retarding American conservatism.
Hax Vobiscum (edacf7) — 2/4/2009 @ 12:17 pmBUSH? ADMITTED AN ERROR? SHOCKA!
Emperor7 who wants DRJ back! (1b037c) — 2/4/2009 @ 12:19 pmAnother theory on the 500 million — perhaps all the extras are living in the 7 extra states?
Rob Crawford (6c262f) — 2/4/2009 @ 12:22 pmOr she was counting the extended families welcomed into the country to rejoin their soon-to-be-amnestied kin. And with the years of being here illegally, they have been here long enough to be naturalized without any work, them and their families.
John Hitchcock (fb941d) — 2/4/2009 @ 12:26 pmSOMEBODY PLEASE TELL ME WHAT TO THINK AND SAY. I’M A DEMOCRAT AND I CAN’T THINK BY MYSELF.
daleyrocks (5d22c0) — 2/4/2009 @ 12:29 pmI’d like to hear Obama say that he screwed up by postponing the tribunal, and thus potential death by execution, of one Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The man who sawed off Danny Pearl’s head and planned 9/11. But hey, that’s me.
carlitos (ac34f6) — 2/4/2009 @ 12:30 pmRe: CHEMTRAILS
Thanks Techie. 🙂
carlitos (ac34f6) — 2/4/2009 @ 12:32 pmI thought the titty bars were pretty happy to take the FEMA money away from their Katrina survivor visitors.
daleyrocks (5d22c0) — 2/4/2009 @ 12:35 pmslizzle @ 50 – Maybe she’s a cannibal.
daleyrocks (5d22c0) — 2/4/2009 @ 12:37 pmClarification: the press didn’t really ban “any and all” criticism of Bush in the months immediately after 9/11. Rather, it banned all but token criticism, while, on bended knee, delivering the Commander in Chief’s statements to the public as if they were gospel.
Hax Vobiscum (edacf7) — 2/4/2009 @ 12:45 pmHax obviously lives in an alternate universe.
John Hitchcock (fb941d) — 2/4/2009 @ 12:46 pmSorry if this is a repeat but I don’t have time to read all 43 comments.
But then you go ahead anyway and post an incredibly inane post – but hey, thanks for playing, you’re been a wonderful contestant!
while, on bended knee, delivering the Commander in Chief’s
I think you’re confusing your administrations here – I believe you need to look up Clinton, Bill/Lewinsky, Monica.
Dmac (49b16c) — 2/4/2009 @ 1:45 pmAnyone else notice that when lefties like Hax cite right-leaning media entities, the only ones they can ever come up with are Fox News and/or Rush Limbaugh?
Chris (2d8013) — 2/4/2009 @ 2:35 pmChris: those aren’t the only ones I can come up with, they’re the only ones identity conservatives are willing to accept as their own.
There’s the Murdoch empire, Conrad Black’s papers, the Sinclair Cable network, and Sun Young Moon’s Washington Times, the Quayle familiams Pulliam chain and so on.
The trouble is that even conservatives admit, usually unwittingly, that while substantial in size, the conservative-leaning media is third rate. That’s why the focus is always on the NY Times instead of the NY Post, and on the Washington Post, instead of the Washington Times.
Plenty of right-wing newspapers out there. The shortage is of people who want to read them.
Hax Vobiscum (23258e) — 2/4/2009 @ 5:37 pmSo when is Obama going to admit to screwing up again with the Zinni appointment?
SPQR (26be8b) — 2/4/2009 @ 6:56 pmThe shortage is of people who want to read them.
Oh, you mean all the dopes who can’t even come out and proclaim their ideology clearly and candidly? Who can’t even say, yes, I’m a liberal!! (Instead of “I’m a…progressive.”).
Tonight there are below freezing forecasts for 90% of the US and this idiot thinks:
I have a hunch that a perfect storm of various trends and events that is going to hamstring the nation’s (if not world’s) economy for some time to come now will be ratcheted up a few more negative notches by the misguided, nonsensical policies emanating from the Obama White House.
If the auto industry has to be further decimated to wean American consumers off their addiction to foreign oil, that’s one thing. But the thought that a big part of our economy is going to be straighjacketed in order to placate the religion of flakes like Obama’s Secretary of Energy and Al Gore (who prays before the shrine of mother nature) is a whole different matter.
Mark (411533) — 2/4/2009 @ 9:22 pmYeah, the “straightjacket” really hurt those Japanese automakers, didn’t it.
Wake up and smell the green tea, Mark. Industrial planning can work.
It can also fail, of course, but given the current state of the U.S. auto industry, the bar is pretty low.
At this point, success amounts to survival, and guess what: no one, not even the nuttiest Ayn Rand for Dummies theorist believes the U.S. auto industry can survive absent help from the government.
One thing I don’t get about conservatives is how they can be so monumentally naive about big government’s ability to do something as unlikely as, say, break the back of Islamic terrorism and deliver democracy to the Middle East by killing tens of thousands of Iraqis just after destroying the region’s most militarily powerful secular regime.
But when it comes to the much smaller, more defined, less risky and far less costly task of say, insuring a minimum level of health care is available to every American, then, suddenly, the same government that’s sure to turn hate into love over in Iraq is just way too incompetent to ever pull off something like health insurance.
I understand that for a lot of conservatives, it’s a matter of morals. It’s immoral for the government to be involved in the economy, but not for it to be involved in national defense, no matter how insane and, even, suicidal, the latter mission becomes. That’s a defensible view, even if I certainly disagree.
But this idea that the government is orders of magnitude more feckless than the captains of industry just doesn’t wash, whether it’s in Iraq or Detroit.
Hax Vobiscum (edacf7) — 2/5/2009 @ 12:46 am#67~
Except, of course, that it never has.
You really are monumentally clueless, aren’t you? You really don’t understand that the task you describe as “much smaller, more defined, less risky and far less costly task” is many orders of magnitude larger, more costly, and more difficult than deposing a foreign dictator?
Wow.
EW1(SG) (e27928) — 2/5/2009 @ 4:14 amFord is doing OK, as are Toyota, Honda, Subaru, Hyundai, etc… Granted, the downturn isn’t helping them, but they’re fundamentally sound.
One thing I don’t get is progressives’ ability to completely ignore objective, observable reality.
Pablo (99243e) — 2/5/2009 @ 4:16 am“But when it comes to the much smaller, more defined, less risky and far less costly task of say, insuring a minimum level of health care is available to every American, then, suddenly, the same government that’s sure to turn hate into love over in Iraq is just way too incompetent to ever pull off something like health insurance.”
Hax – I think you are just hopelessly confused over what terms mean. Perople can get all the healthcare they want in America. That is certainly not an issue is it as you maintain in your first sentence above? Your issue is who pays for it. Let’s be honest about it. People can get health care if they want to pay for it, but that’s not the issue you are pointing to.
daleyrocks (5d22c0) — 2/5/2009 @ 4:27 amHax – Your issue is where is the free shit. Where’s my free lunch bitches?
daleyrocks (5d22c0) — 2/5/2009 @ 4:31 amPeople can get emergency health care without paying for it, too. As for universal health care, ask the Brits and the other Euros and the Canadians how that works for them.
John Hitchcock (fb941d) — 2/5/2009 @ 4:40 amI recall during one of the Bush-Kerry debates someone asked Bush if he’s made any mistakes. He said yes, particularly some appointments he’d made, but he wouldn’t name anyone because he didn’t want to offend them.
Jim S. (5838d9) — 2/5/2009 @ 4:50 amIn the Bay Area we call our Right Wing Newspaper the Internet.
EBJ (2fd7f7) — 2/5/2009 @ 9:35 amnot even the nuttiest Ayn Rand for Dummies theorist believes the U.S. auto industry can survive absent help from the government.
And the irony is that the US government, thanks to Obama’s environment-is-religion neurosis, is going to further undermine the auto industry — particularly the Big 3 of America — making a bail-out of that industry even tougher and riskier.
Moreover, the idiocy of all this is perfectly exemplified by observing the behavior over the past several years of all the people out there similar to Obama (aka limousine liberals) who’ve had a love affair with big gas-guzzling SUVs.
One thing I don’t get about conservatives is how they can be so monumentally naive about big government’s ability to do something as unlikely
And the one thing I don’t get about liberals is how they can believe their ideology is predicated on humaneness and kindness when they’re more bothered by the US military than Sadaam Hussein (aka the Butcher of Baghdad), and supposedly so concerned about medical care for the little guy while being adoring patsies to trial lawyers and their ambulance-chasing mentality and practices (symbolized by their affection for Bill Meaning-of-is-is Clinton, etc).
Mark (411533) — 2/5/2009 @ 8:03 pm[…] * Obama taking responsibility for Daschle isn’t something new for the Presidency. […]
The International House of Bacon » Blog Archive » Friday Linkage (72fa57) — 2/6/2009 @ 5:06 am[…] The paper explained that George W. Bush never admitted error. Except, he did. […]
Patterico's Pontifications » Patterico’s Los Angeles Dog Trainer Year in Review 2009 (e4ab32) — 1/1/2010 @ 10:29 am