President Bush Accepts Responsibility

[nemorathwald]

I was relieved when I saw that President Bush acknowledged the depth of mis-handling of the Katrina tragedy, and took (in his words) "personal responsibility" for the effectiveness of his government's response capability. Americans are angry that until then he did not seem to take a national disaster seriously. There is more than one reason that we object to him vacationing, playing guitar with a country music singer, celebrating a birthday-cake photo-op with John McCain, praising the bunglers who were botching the relief effort, issuing assurances that were out of all contact with reality, denying that state and local governments had asked for help, and expressing concern for the coastal vacation home of another rich politician who was safe and sound. It's not just that he's not galvanizing the officers of his administration. It's that we want the sort of leadership that comes from a President who calls an emergency telecast and gives a speech as he did on the evening of 9/11. We were not only upset that President Bush and Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff and FEMA Director Brown expressed less knowledge than the typical civilian following events blow-by-blow on blogs; we were also upset to hear so much light-hearted Marie Antoinette callousness and to see so many smiles.

I was surprised to see the President acknowledge the fiasco and take responsibility, but this is a very wise move on his part. When we who oppose his administration have criticized him for glibly grinning, and for seeming unaware of the situation, we have to pay attention and acknowledge when we see him turn around. He is now being consistent with his own message that his administration is supposed to help our country better manage such disasters. Remember the President who once responded to a disaster with "I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon" and comforted a grieving nation? Wherever he went for the past few weeks, perhaps buried deep underneath the affable frat boy persona, I now feel like that President has returned. The photograph in this news story is the face of that President.

Perhaps underneath the surface of the bloggers and blog readers who are the harshest critics of George W. Bush over the past weeks-- perhaps underneath the surface of the reporters on the ground who lost their composure, or who started chastising politicians during live interviews-- perhaps underneath the surface of the Photoshoppers combining George Bush's recreational activities with images of corpses and man's inhumanity to man--

Perhaps you would not find idealogues who will take any excuse to attack George Bush. Instead, at that moment in history the first desire in that psychological space that humans occupy, perhaps, involved President George W. Bush on a fire truck on the 14th of September four years ago.

Comments

[tlatoani.livejournal.com]

This is a guy who's denied making any mistakes, while he unilaterally declared war on a country on false pretenses, didn't bother to plan for the followthrough, and has thrown away almost 2000 American lives as well as literally countless Iraqi ones. Not to mention the additional American lives his obsession with Iraq has taken indirectly on the Gulf Coast.

If you've got an acquaintance who steals your stuff all the time, and then one day he apologizes for one of the things he stole after all your other friends gang up on him and call him on it, do you immediately decide he's turned around?

No, this doesn't get him off the hook. It's a start on responsible behavior, but why did we have to wait five years to see responsibility from this guy? Isn't he supposed to be a professional, mature person to do that job in the first place?

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

He's turned around on this and this alone. The point is, he seems to have been hit by a clue train in recent days and while this does not absolve him of anything cluelessness-- in fact, it does not even absolve him of past and general cluelessness-- we can no longer say he's ignoring the situation. That point, and the fact that his critics are not necessarily leaping on any chance to pillory him for no reason, is all I'm saying.

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

One additional comment. What ultimately matters is what the President does or does not do, and not how he makes the country feel. However, this post is about Bush's political capital, how he earned it for better or for worse, how he is squandering it for better or for worse, and how he might staunch the flow of squandering it. Whether or not you or I desire him to lose political capital is an entirely different issue, beyond the scope of what I addressed.

[avt-tor.livejournal.com]

Fascists need crises to justify their tightening the reins of power. This is just PR. Bush is accountable for having an incompetent political crony entrusted with the lives of thousands of people. Posturing emotional gestures for the camera is just taking political advantage of people's suffering.

[paranthropus.livejournal.com]

There is one thing that no president can "spin" his way out of: legacy.

Perhaps the tragedy of New Orleans has made Bush reflect on how he will be remembered. The devastation of a major American city is a legacy worthy of Godzilla. That's got to be weighing pretty heavily on him right about now. I can only hope that it precipitates a change in policy, but I'm not holding my breath.

Does anyone really believe that George is the guy making the decisions? Here's a guy who has to ask Condi Rice before he takes a bathroom break. (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050914/ids_photos_ts/r2587077477.jpg)