Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to The New Coffee Room. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Ed Rollins on Bush's Last Press Conference
Topic Started: Jan 13 2009, 11:45 AM (117 Views)
QuirtEvans
Member Avatar
I Owe It All To John D'Oh
Quote:
 
I have rarely witnessed an event as bizarre as President Bush's farewell press conference yesterday.

It reminded me of Richard Nixon's November 17, 1973, question and answer session before 400 Associated Press managing editors at the height of the Watergate scandal, in which he declared: "People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook."

Well, to the best of my knowledge, Nixon wasn't a crook (in the technical sense). He was dishonest, he abused the office of the presidency, and telling the truth wasn't his strong suit. And he resigned in disgrace and would have been impeached if he hadn't. But there were also periods in his presidency that were very good for this country and the world.

President Bush is not a crook either. And even more importantly, I don't believe he is dishonest or an incompetent. The mistakes of his presidency were caused by overconfidence, bad information or a certain arrogance that was still fully on display yesterday.

How can you reflect on going to war, a war of choice, and argue that "not finding weapons of mass destruction was a significant disappointment," as President Bush did yesterday? And putting the "not finding the weapons" in the same breath as "We shouldn't have hung the sign, 'Mission Accomplished' "!

A disappointment is when you're a football fan and your team lost in the playoffs or in the national championship game. Eliminating weapons of mass destruction was the rationale for sending hundreds of thousands of men and women to Iraq to risk their lives and spending billions of dollars of American taxpayers' money.

The rationale for the war wasn't that Saddam Hussein was a bad guy -- which he was -- and that he violated every sanction and agreement that the United Nations put on him.

President Bush went on to say: "One thing about the presidency is that you can only make decisions based on the information at hand. You don't get to have information after you make the decision -- that's not the way it works."

That is correct and that may be the most important lesson our new president can learn from the failures of the last. Make sure you get the information to make the right decisions.


http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/13/rollins.obama/index.html
It would be unwise to underestimate what large groups of ill-informed people acting together can achieve. -- John D'Oh, January 14, 2010.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
ivorythumper
Member Avatar
I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
"Make sure you get the information to make the right decisions."

Then you will NEVER make a mistake! Wow! Brilliant! :clap:
The dogma lives loudly within me.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Horace
Member Avatar
HOLY CARP!!!
Reminds me of a story I heard about a manager who wanted to reduce workplace injuries. So he asked all the employees, "do you think you can go 5 minutes without injuring yourself?". They all felt they could, so he told them to just treat every day as one long string of 5 minute blocks during which nobody injurs themselves!

As a good person, I implore you to do as I, a good person, do. Be good. Do NOT be bad. If you see bad, end bad. End it in yourself, and end it in others. By any means necessary, the good must conquer the bad. Good people know this. Do you know this? Are you good?
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Horace
Member Avatar
HOLY CARP!!!
I appreciated when Bush told the press that they sometimes 'misunderestimated' him. I have yet to see any report of that which acknowledges the intentional irony. Either they don't mention it or they provide the sound bite without commentary, probably hoping the listener will assume that Bush thinks it's a real word.
As a good person, I implore you to do as I, a good person, do. Be good. Do NOT be bad. If you see bad, end bad. End it in yourself, and end it in others. By any means necessary, the good must conquer the bad. Good people know this. Do you know this? Are you good?
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
VPG
Member Avatar
Pisa-Carp
"Make sure you get the information to make the right decisions."

Who is to make the decision that the information is true? hmmmmmm?
I'M NOT YELLING.........I'M ITALIAN...........THAT'S HOW WE TALK!


"People say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look."
Ronald Reagan, Inaugural, 1971

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
TomK
HOLY CARP!!!
Guys like Rollins just couldn't hate Bush more.

He should face up to what he is in life--and that's certainly not a reporter. :(blue:(

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Copper
Member Avatar
Shortstop

I remember Ross Perot gave Rollins a big bag of money when he hired him for his campaign in 1992.

Perot gave him the money and tons of great publicity, then afterward Rollins trashed Perot.

Rollins is a disloyal, gutless moron.

The Confederate soldier was peculiar in that he was ever ready to fight, but never ready to submit to the routine duty and discipline of the camp or the march. The soldiers were determined to be soldiers after their own notions, and do their duty, for the love of it, as they thought best. Carlton McCarthy
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
« Previous Topic · The New Coffee Room · Next Topic »
Add Reply