I remember a comment George W. Bush made to me during a one-on-one, in-flight interview. He said the toughest moment of his life wasn’t what to do after 9/11 but seeing his father -- “this fine, fine man” -- defeated by Clinton. I thought for a moment he might cry, but of course he wouldn’t.BooMan is understandably appalled:
What Kathleen is fondly recalling here is actually a moment that should have brought some clarifying terror. Here was the president of the United States freely admitting that watching his father lose the presidency to Bill Clinton was a more formative event for him than watching the Twin Towers collapse.But this shouldn't be surprising. In his 2010 memoir, Decision Points, Bush identified "the worst moment of my presidency" -- not 9/11, but being called a racist by a black entertainer.
As Mehdi Hasan wrote at the time in The New Statesman:
This morning's papers lead with extracts, snippets and lines from Bush's new memoir, Decision Points....So the worst moment of his presidency was when he was personally insulted. And the worst moment of his life was when his father lost an election. Three thousand dead in a massive terrorist attack? Get in line, 9/11 -- that wasn't his worst day. That wasn't even the worst day of his presidency.
One bit from the extracts of the book that stands out to me, and perhaps sums up both the ridiculous and odious nature of George Bush and his presidency, is the section on Hurricane Katrina and the fallout from it. The ex-president describes how upset and angry he was to hear, at the time, how the rapper Kanye West had told television viewers: "George Bush doesn't care about black people."
From the Guardian:
"Five years later, I can barely write these words without feeling disgusted. I am deeply insulted by the suggestion that we allowed American citizens to suffer because they were black ... The more I thought about it, the angrier I felt. I was raised to believe that racism was one of the greatest evils in society," Bush writes. "I faced a lot of criticism as president. I didn't like hearing people claim I had lied about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction or cut taxes to benefit the rich. But the suggestion that I was a racist, because of the response to Katrina, represented an all-time low. I told Laura at the time that it was the worst moment of my presidency. I feel the same way today."
Kanye wasn't exactly right: The truth is, George W. Bush doesn't care about non-Bush people.
George W. Bush was, and still is, a psychopath.
ReplyDeleteAnd the worst US President in the last 150+ years - and, arguably, ever!
Almost 3,000 dead on 9/11?
Water off this fuck's back!
Hurricane Katrina killing almost as many people?
Water over a lock's top!
Defeat/insult my Daddy?
That's a bridge too far!
BooMan asks a legitimate question:
How different is Jeb, from this brother?
It reminds me also that W. gave as one of his reasons for going after Saddam Hussein that he "tried to kill my Dad." And it never seemed to me that that alone might not have been reason enough for him.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure 9/11 was the BEST day of his presidency, maybe of his life. His popularity went about 30 points that day.
ReplyDeleteIn 2010, W(orst POTUS Ever) owned up to his biggest mistake while in office... not Stealing your Social Security. While in Chicago promoting his book, President Bush proudly claimed 9/11 as one of his successes, "In terms of accomplishments, my biggest accomplishment is that I kept the country safe," Bush said. But, he lamented his greatest failure that he wasn't able to privatize Social Security.
ReplyDeleteThe electorate of this fine country voted George Bush into office over Al Gore, this is a representative democracy and Bush became our preferred representative over the more intelligent seeming choice whom we to this day disdain. The American people found it easier to identify with a person seemingly of somewhat dubious intellectual ability, They cheered him on into a war they now regret, looks like the contempt would be better spent on the American electorate
ReplyDelete