100 monkeys typing.

Omniscent to a Fault

How our Commander in Chief views his role and responsibility.

In order to make good decisions, you've got to rely upon the judgment of people you trust.

(...)
So I called, I delegated -- that's one of the things you do in decision-making.

(...)
Part of being a decision-maker, though, is you've got to help -- you've got to think strategically.

(...)
You can't lead the nation, you can't make good decisions unless you're optimistic about the future.

And the stark reality

"I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees." -- GWB to GMA, 9.1.05

Peter Galbraith - former U.S. diplomat: January 2003 the President invited three members of the Iraqi opposition to join him to watch the Super Bowl. In the course of the conversation the Iraqis realized that the President was not aware that there was a difference between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. He looked at them and said, "You mean...they're not, you know, there, there's this difference. What is it about?"

FORT HOOD, Texas — President Bush said yesterday a declassified briefing document on al Qaeda that he received 36 days before the September 11 attacks "was no indication of a terrorist threat."

"I am satisfied that I never saw any intelligence that indicated there was going to be an attack on America..

While defending the deal, McClellan acknowledged that the president did not know that his administration's interagency task force had approved it until the media began reporting the growing political reaction to it in recent days. Bush was not informed earlier because the interagency review found nothing to raise it to the presidential level, McClellan said.

According to various eyewitnesses at a private meeting in the White House Cabinet Room last week, the president was characteristically cordial, yet remarkably non-committal in responding to a wide range of questions, mostly about racial disparities concerning such issues as employment, education, health care and legal rights. But the most "mind-boggling moment," in the words of Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), came after Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) asked the president, "Do we have your support in extending and strengthening the 1965 Voting Rights Act when it comes up for renewal in 2007?"

The president responded, according to witnesses, in a way that made caucus jaws drop: He did not know enough about that particular law to respond to it, he said, and that he would deal with the legislation when it comes up.

Just the tip of the catastrophic iceberg. Please continue to rearrange the deck chairs on the USS Bushtanic, sit back relax and enjoy the complimentary sodas, the decision maker's on the job.

Posted by kerry at February 23, 2006 03:56 AM