Just a man of the people, that Bush. A full day of inside peeking at what goes on in the mind of the man chosen to lead this great nation.
Williams: Do you read this kind of stuff?President Bush: No.
Williams: You don't read the news weeklies?
President Bush: I really don't. I'm interested in the news. I'm not all that interested in the opinions.
Funny, with ever increasing regularity... the voters who elected him find themselves with opinions.
President Bush: I don'I see a lot of the news. Every morning I look at the newspaper. I can't say I've read every single article in the newspaper. But I definitely know what's in the news. Occasionally, I watch television. t want to hurt your feelings, but it's occasionally. I'm working at that point, as are you. But I'm very aware of what's in the news. I'm aware because I see clips. I see summaries. I have people on my staff that walk in every morning and say, "This is what's — this is how I see it. This is what's brewing today," on both the domestic and international side. Frankly, it is probably part of my own fault for needling people, but it's a myth to think I don't know what's going on. And it's a myth to think that I'm not aware that there is opinions that don't agree with mine. Because I'm fully aware of that.
Filtered for your pleasure.
Williams: A lot of people have seen in this series of speeches you're giving on Iraq, a movement in your position. They call it an acknowledgement that perhaps the mission has not gone as it was originally planned — three points: That the U.S. would be welcomed as liberators, that General Shinsecki, when he said this would take hundreds of thousands of troops in his farewell speech, might have been right. And third, that it wasn't a self-sustaining war in terms of the oil revenue. Do you concede those three points might not have gone as planned?President Bush: Review them with me again.
Pay a-fucking-ttention
Williams: You said again today if you had to do it all over again you'd do...President Bush: I would. Remember what Dolpher found, the inspectors that went in there. They came back and said, "No, we didn't find the weapons that we all thought would be there. But we did know that he had the capacity to reconstitute a weapons program." And that he was a dangerous man. It would be even more dangerous had he survived, you know, yet another U.N. resolution.
He had a brain... he could have planned something.
Williams: Can we talk about torture for a moment? The United States right now is locked in talks. And they're going on in Washington. Why can't the United States be definitively against torture, the current definition they're talking about?President Bush: Yeah, we will be. We are and we will be at home and abroad. And we're working through this issue with members of the House and the Senate. There's a reconciliation process going, or a, you know, coming together of minds, I guess is the best way to put it. And we want to see it happened. And we're working with both Senator McCain and Congressman Duncan Hunter.
We're looking into it... really not in the cards in this time of terror.
President Bush: No, not at all — particularly these people, I mean, some of whom you know are quite straightforward. But on the other hand, they also understand that they can play a great role, you know, in helping me — allowing me to maintain a perspective. Listen, friends are just a vital part of my life.And there's nothing neater than showing, or sharing, the White House experience with people you're comfortable with. And it's a fantastic experience by the way. I like to make decisions. As you know, I'm willing to stand by my decisions. Some don't like that aspect about my presidency. But nevertheless, that's just the way I am.
And it's an honor to represent the country. We are a fabulous nation, with great principles and wonderful people. And it's unbelievably exciting to represent America around the world and to call upon the compassion here at home.
It's neato, swell... 23 skidoo. They never let me in on decisioning back in my Arbusto days. After they tell me what to say and do, I decision.
What's the term for rocketing past one's Peter Principle high water mark?
Posted by kerry at December 14, 2005 03:45 AM