George W. Bush has now talked about the things he regrets doing as president of the United States.
So ... you're hoping for a thoughtful discussion of his errors? Maybe an admission that "you're either with us or against us" wasn't a constructive thing to say? Or that the war in Iraq was a big mistake, particularly since there were no "weapons of mass destruction", which in March 2003 he insisted the Iraqis were only weeks from using? Maybe Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, or appointing hard-core fundamentalists to decision-making administrative positions in the governmental bureaucracy? Or pulling the US out of the Kyoto Treaty and insisting that global warming is a myth? And let's don't even talk about Hurricane Katrina and 'you're doing a heckuva job, Brownie.'
Well, not quite.
Bush says he regrets use of 'Mission Accomplished' banner Quote:
Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush said he regrets the display of the 'Mission Accomplished' sign as backdrop for a speech he gave about a month after the March 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.
``To some, it said, well, `Bush thinks the war in Iraq is over,' when I didn't think that,'' he said in a CNN interview today. ``It conveyed the wrong message.''
[...]
Bush also cited other regrets in the CNN interview, which was conducted aboard the U.S.S. Intrepid in New York after a Veterans Day ceremony.
"I regret saying some things I shouldn't have said,'' Bush said. He cited comments he made after the Sept. 11 attacks, when he said of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden: ``I want justice. There's an old poster out West that said, 'Wanted, dead or alive.'''
He also said he regretted telling Iraqi insurgents in 2003: "There are some who feel like that the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is, bring 'em on.''
In the interview yesterday, he said, ``My wife reminded me that, `hey, as president of the United States, be careful what you say.'''
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No kidding. He needed his wife to tell him that? Maybe we should have elected Laura president.
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Bush said he would return to Texas when he hands over the presidency Jan. 20 and may write a book.
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I wonder who his ghost writer will be? (The person who will actually write the book.)
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``I want people to know what it was like to make some of the decisions I had to make,'' he said. ``I've had one of those presidencies where I've had to make some tough calls, and I want people to know the truth about what it was like sitting in the Oval Office.''
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Unlike other US presidencies, where the president didn't have any tough calls to make.
I do have compassion for George Bush. I don't think he's had a particularly happy life, although I'm not sure he's self-aware enough to know it. But I am very glad he won't be living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue any more.
BTW, my dad lives in Dallas, a few blocks from a very ritzy area where he says George Bush is having a big new house built. Speculation among the political bloggers is that Laura will live there, while George will spend most of his time on the ranch in Crawford.
13-11-2008
Things George Bush regrets 
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