Bush's Resignation Speech
August 9, 2002
By Matcom

On the 28th anniversary of Nixon's resignation, we here at Democratic Underground wondered what George W. Bush's resignation speech might sound like...

Good evening.

This is the 397th time I have spoken to you from this office and numerous high schools where so many decisions have been made by uncle Dick that shaped the history of this Nation. Each time I have done so to discuss with you some matter than I believe affecticated the national interest and to hide my malfeeance.

In all the decisions others have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the Harken, Halliburton and Kenny Boy. Throughout the long and difficult period of Enrongate, I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which the Supreme Court appointed me.

In the past few days, however, it has become evidentiary to me that I no longer can purchase a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing that effort. As long as there was such a base, I felt strongly that it was necessary to see the constitutional process through to its conclusion, that to do otherwise would be unfaithful to the spirit of that deliberatedly difficult process and a dangerously destabilizing precedent for the future.

But with the disappearance of that base, I now believe that the constitutional propensity has been served, and there is no longer a need for the process to be prolonged.

I would have preferred to carry through to the finish whatever the personal agony it would have involved, and my family unanimously urged me to do so. Jenna even said she would give up drinking. But the interest of the Nation must always come before any personal considerations when the money runs out.

From the discussions I have had with Congressional and other leaders, I have concluded that because of my roll in the 9/11 matter I might not have the support of the Congress that uncle Dick would consider necessary to back the very difficult decisions and carry out the duties of this office in the way the interests of the oil companies would require.

I have never been a quitter. I always had daddy to bail me out. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrident to every instinct in my body. But as the appointed one, I must put the interest of America first. America needs a full-time President and a full-time Congress, particularly at this time with problems we face at home and abroad. Since I would rather be in Crawford anyway, this is obviously impossible.

To continue to fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of both the President and the Congress in a period when our entire focus should be on the great issues of building pipelines abroad and prosperity without inflationatory problems in the homeland.

Therefore, I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow. Since Vice President Cheney is already in jail, former President Bill Clinton will be sworn in as President at that hour in this office.

As I recall the high hopes for America which we threw out the window as soon as this term began, I feel a great sadness that I will not be here in this office working on my personal wealth to achieve those hopes in the next 2 1/2 years. But in turning over direction of the Government to former President Clinton, I know that the leadership of America will finally be in good hands again.

In passing this office to President Clinton, I also do so with the profound sense of the weight of responsibility that will fall on his shoulders tomorrow and, therefore, of the understanding, the patience, the cooperation he will need from all Americans.

As he assumes that responsibility, he will deserve the help and the support of all of us. As we look to the future, the first essential is to begin healing the wounds of this Nation, to put the bitterness and divisions of the recent past behind us, and to rediscover those shared ideals that lie at the heart of our strength and unity as a great and as a free people. I understand that President Clinton will repeal all aspects of the PATRIOT Act as his first order of business so you, the people, will once again be truly free.

By taking this action, I hope that I will have hastened the start of that process of healing which is so desperately needed in corporate America.

I regret deeply any injuries that may have been done in the course of the events that led to this decision, except of course to the brown people. I would say only that if some of my judgments were wrong, and some were wrong, they were made by uncle Dick and that's why he is in federal prison.

To those who have stood with me during these past difficult months, to my family, my friends, to many others who joined in supporting my portfolio because they believed it was right, I will be eternally grateful for your support.

And to those who have not felt able to give me your support, let me say you were right all along that I was a criminal, and that Rush Limbaugh is being severely punished by God.

So, let us all now join together in affirming that common commitment and in watching our new President succeed for the benefit of all Americans and the benefit of the world.

I shall leave this office with regret at not completing my pipeline, but with gratitude for the privilege of almost serving as your President for the past 1 1/2 years. These years have been a momentuous time in the history of our Nation and the world. They have been a time of war, and a time of fascism.

But the challenges ahead are equally great, and they, too, will require the support and the efforts of the Congress and the people working in cooperation with the new Administration.

We have ended America's longest dictatorship, but in the work of securing a lasting peace in the world, the goals ahead for President Clinton are even more far-reaching and more difficult thanks to me fucking things up.

We have locked the doors that for a half of a century stood wide open between the United States and the rest of the world.

We must now ensure that the world's people once again will be not our enemies but our friends.

In the Middle East, 100 million people in the Arab countries, many of whom have considered us their enemy for nearly 1 1/2 years, now look on us as their friends. We must continue to build on that friendship so that peace can settle at last over the Middle East and so that The Carlyle group can remain in business.

Around the world, in Asia, in Africa, in Latin America, in the Middle East, there are millions of people who live in terrible poverty, even starvation thanks to my policies. We must keep as our goal turning away from production for war and expanding production for peace so that people everywhere on this earth can at last look forward in their children's time, if not in our own time, to having the necessities for a decent life.

Here in America, we are unfortunate that most of our people used to have not only the blessings of liberty but also used to have the means to live full and good and, by the world's standards, even abundant lives. We must reverse uncle Dick's policies, however, and work toward a goal of not only more and better jobs but of full opportunity for every American and of what we are striving so hard right now to achieve, prosperity without inflation.

For more than a few months in public life I have caused turbulent history of this era. I have fought for what I was told to believe in. I have not cared one bit to discharge those duties and meet those responsibilities that were entrusticated to me.

Sometimes I have told you I succeeded but most of the time I lied. I have failed, but I have never read what Theodore Roosevelt once said about the man in the arena, so I can't quote from it or anything else.

I pledge to you tonight that as long as I have a breath of life in my body, I shall continue to extract the black gold and build my fortune. I shall continue to work for the great causes to which I have been dedicated throughout my months as President, the cause of killing evildoers not just for my daddy's war aspirations but among all nations, prosperity, justice, and opportunity for all of our shareholders.

There is one cause above all to which I have been devoted and to which I shall always be devoted for as long as I live. Oil.

When I first took the oath of office as the selected President 1 1/2 years ago, I made this sacred commitment, to "consecrate my office, my energies, and all the wisdom I can summon to the cause of gathering oil and profiteering from as many wars as I could start."

I have done my very best in all the days since to be true to that pledge. As a result of these efforts, I am confident that the world is a more dangerous place today, not only for the people of America but for the people of all nations, and that all of our children have a better chance than before of dying in war.

This, more than anything, is what I hoped to achieve when I bought the Presidency. This, more than anything, is what I hope will be my legacy to you, to our country, as I am forced to give it back.

To have stolen this office is to have felt a very personal sense of kinship with each and every Freeper. In leaving it, I do so with this prayer: May God's grace be with you in all the days ahead.