MP3 The Mendoza Line - "Mistakes Were Made"

Here's transcript of one of the lowest points of last nite's "Presidential" press conference, the first since March 2003 (and what a farce that was):

Question: You’ve looked back before 9/11 for what mistakes might have been made. After 9/11, what would your biggest mistake be, would you say, and what lessons have learned from it?

BUSH: I wish you’d have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it.

John, I’m sure historians will look back and say, gosh, he could’ve done it better this way or that way. You know, I just — I’m sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with answer, but it hadn’t yet.

I would’ve gone into Afghanistan the way we went into Afghanistan. Even knowing what I know today about the stockpiles of weapons, I still would’ve called upon the world to deal with Saddam Hussein. See, I’m of the belief that we’ll find out the truth on the weapons. That’s why we sent up the independent commission. I look forward to hearing the truth as to exactly where they are. They could still be there. They could be hidden, like the 50 tons of mustard gas in a turkey farm. One of the things that Charlie Duelfer talked about was that he was surprised of the level of intimidation he found amongst people who should know about weapons and their fear of talking about them because they don’t want to be killed.

You know, there’s this kind of — there’s a terror still in the soul of some of the people in Iraq. They’re worried about getting killed, and therefore they’re not going to talk. But it’ll all settle out, John. We’ll find out the truth about the weapons at some point in time.

However, the fact that he had the capacity to make them bothers me today just like it would have bothered me then. He’s a dangerous man. He’s a man who actually not only had weapons of mass destruction — the reason I can say that with certainty is because he used them. And I have no doubt in my mind that he would like to have inflicted harm, or paid people to inflict harm, or trained people to inflict harm, on America, because he hated us.

I hope — I don’t want to sound like I have made no mistakes. I’m confident I have. I just haven’t — you just put me under the spot here, and maybe I’m not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one.

That doesn't do justice to all the "umms" and "ahhs" as he was searching for an "answer." My sista said she felt sorry for him at that moment, since he obviously wasn't prepared for that question (somebody's getting fired). I think it's ridiculous to feel sorry for a guy who can't answer a question or admit a mistake, because it shouldn't matter whether he's a dolt or not - he's the f**king president, and him being that unprepared for a direct & relatively uncomplicated question is insanity.

And boy, it looked like answering all those questions was really tiring for Mr. Bush. You'd hardly believe that he just got back from vacation in Texas, where he spent the week fishing w/NRA reps while Iraq burned. Ugh. Just my $0.02.

In (barely) related news, Tuesday's press conference has displaced a few of my favorite TV shows. Fans of Fox's 24 take note, because a new episode will be airing this coming Sunday (4/18) @ 9pm ET/8pm CT. Because of this schedule change, America will be deprived of the funniest show on TV, Arrested Development for a week. You have all been forewarned.

This entry was posted by mr gilbert at 4/13/2004 11:20:00 PM.