It all came down to baseball
Hail to the new chief! Our long national Bush Nightmare is almost over. I have never looked forward to a new president so much in my life.
George W. Bush gave his final press conference the other day and will deliver a farewell address to the nation on TV this Thursday night. From what I hear and read, the vast majority of American people have no interest in what he will say...they just want him gone.
That press conference was sure something to see...pure theater. I heard on TV that a press aide told White House interns to fill some of the empty seats to make it look well attended. It could've been worse...at least he didn't do like FEMA did and call on interns as if they were actual reporters. Remember that?
I guess they'll have to pay folks to come on Thursday.
With a straight face Bush began by complimenting the White House press corps...a virtual love fest. After eight years of treating them like they were terrorist sympathizers, George suddenly wants them to know he has a deep "respect for the important work reporters do."
Wasn't he cute when he mimicked a whine about a "financial collapse on my watch"?
But Bush was trying to pour on the charm for a good reason. He knows that a week from now no one is going to give a rat's patootie what he has to say about anything; but see, these reporters will still be at the White House and they'll be comparing him with the new guy.
Bush is using his final days as president making the TV rounds trying to scrape the dung off his legacy. I suspect that Karl Rove is behind this little project.
Last Sunday Britt Hume interviewed both Presidents Bush on Fox News. Poppy is also in denial about Junior's legacy...it would be comical if not for the trail of death, debt and destruction left in his wake.
Before we can all rest in peace at last, Bush wants to let us know how much he did for the nation, for us. I get so tired of him crowing about how he "kept the nation safe" from terrorist attacks. Well...except for 9/11, which was, of course, Clinton's fault, even though Clinton left him a great big note on the White House fridge saying - "Osama bin Laden is determined to strike within the United States using civilian airplanes!"
So that talking point has always puzzled me. What about how President Clinton kept us safe from terrorism? The dust had barely settled after the first World Trade Center bombing when, just six weeks after he took office, Bill Clinton tracked down, tried and jailed the bombers. For eight years there were no further terrorist attacks on US soil...until nine months after Bush took office.
And Bush keeps mentioning his failed attempt to privatize Social Security...how he regrets it. Eeek, it’s frightening to think where a lot of people would be right now if that effort had succeeded.
Bush and Cheney are both a disgrace. Corporate shills who were bought and sold by special interests. We ordinary American had to sit by helplessly while our treasury was looted and our international image trashed - all so George and Dick could make good on campaign promises to Big Oil, Big Tobacco, Wall St execs,etc etc.
Maureen Dowd has an excellent column - "An Extremist Makeover?" - that addresses the attempts by Bush&Co to concoct a semi-passable legacy. Someone called it a Revised Magical History Tour.
"Asked by People magazine what moments from the last eight years he revisited most often, W. talked passionately about the pitch he threw out at the World Series in 2001: “I never felt that anxious any other time during my presidency, curiously enough.” [..]
A baseball pitch!? That's one of his most important memories? Saturday Night Live couldn't make this stuff up.
Here we had a major terrorist attack, two wars, Abu Ghraib, a drowned American city, North Korea and Iran, a crashed economy, soaring unemployment, record foreclosures, increased homelessness, etc. etc.—and he never felt that anxious any other time during his presidency, curiously enough?
His baseball answer reveals what his real values are...he's still a fratboy jock wanting to impress his buddies.
I just remembered the time he was asked about his favorite moment of his presidency and he talked about catching a big fish. Nothing to do with the country or the world, nothing to do with governing...
Dowd also says that Bush is - “a president who was over his head and under Cheney’s spell.” ... "From Gaza to the unemployment figures to the $10.6 trillion debt, things keep spiraling while W. keeps fiddling. Just as when he was in the National Guard and didn’t bother to show up, now, as the scabrous consequences of his missteps shake the economy and the world, he doesn’t bother to show up. He’s checked out — spending his time on more than a dozen exit interviews that do nothing to change his image as a president…[..]"
Are there anymore questions America wants to ask our departing Commander-in-Chief?
How about - Was it good for you too?
Folks, cue the music and the fireworks! A newer, brighter, more hopeful America, is about to begin!
Cue the Founding Fathers to stop spinning in their graves.
