John Podhoretz: Dubya in the Dumps

[brooklynite]

Oh dear, a Fox news rightie lowering the boom on W? This can't be good:

YESTERDAY, at a press conference that was unquestionably the most dispirited performance of his presidency, President Bush implicitly answered a question many close Bush watchers had asked after the thumpin' the Republican Party took in November.

The question was this: How would Bush, who himself had only suffered electoral success since seeking higher office in 1994, handle defeat? The answer: Not well.

"I encourage you all to go shopping more," he said - expressing a strange anxiety about the economy's retail sales after he had just trumpeted how strong those sales had been and how strong the economy has been in general.

...snip...

And on Iraq, he said things were tough, and were going to continue to be tough; that he had said we were winning earlier in the fall but now recognized we weren't winning - and asked for patience as he consulted with his advisers and Democrats about a new way forward there.

So in a few months, the president has gone from taking the position that the public needed to hear him speak optimistically about Iraq to speaking in quite dour terms about Iraq without offering anything but a hope that in a few weeks, he'll come up with a new strategy.

It really would have been better had he not come forward to face the press at all - because he did nothing except underline and echo a powerful sense of uncertainty throughout his own government about how to achieve victory.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12212006/postopinion/opedcolumnists/dubya_in_the_dumps_opedcolumnists_john_podhoretz.htm

[Ezlivin]

1. And he'll probably get a little blue and lonely when he's in solitary confinement

Especially since Condi won't be able to participate in any conjugal visits.

[tularetom]

2. Remember *'s statement about pickles and barney and how

he wouldn't change his mind even if they were the only ones who agreed with his Iraq "policy". Well, I think we're just about at that point.

[The Roux Comes First]

8. Don't you dare claim to know without attribution and full references

what Barney's position is! As a dog he is obviously far more sensible than the president. I imagine he's under guard right now, known to be at risk of hightailing it for territory where they deal with reality and there's less of that high-pitched keening noise in the middle of the night.

A dog needs his sleep.

[Vincardog]

3. aWoL's only plan is to keep the illegal occupation going until the democratically elected president

gets into office.
That way he can persist in his delusion that it was the right thing.

Face it folks jr. is INSANE

[hashibabba]

4. I agree. He's insane. Yesterday's performance was just

plain scary. He's truly losing it and doesn't have much farther to go. He ought to watch that debacle and see for himself how delusional he is. His performance was uneven, full of lies (nothing unusual about that) and contradictions. You can see he's scared. It shows on his face. He really just looked pathetic to me. I'd say I felt sorry for him, but I really don't. I can always find something good in anyone. But never with him since he stole the first election. He's just plain evil.

[rusty charly]

5. NYTimes

"Anyone looking for new thinking on Iraq, or even candor, had to be disappointed by President Bush’s news conference yesterday. Mr. Bush may want to defer unveiling his new strategy, but there will be no obliging pause in Iraq’s unraveling."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/21/opinion/21thu1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[307 MMS]

6. Agreed

Hashibabba,
"I can always find something good in anyone. But never with him since he stole the first election. He's just plain evil".
Interesting that I've ALWAYS thought the same thing, even when he was a governor. And after that stolen, that did. Daddy arranges for the Supreme Court to hand this job to his son and look what he's done to the entire Bush family and us, for god sakes. And he is definately scared shitless....and certifiable too!

[wryter2000]

7. Bingo

And this delay until after the holidays is to allow the sheeple to forget the ISG.

[The Roux Comes First]

9. And our assignment? Don't let them forget (nfm)

[passionatelib]

10. I stick with NPR and normally cannot STAND

to listen to him, but I did Wednesday. Creepy, just creepy. "Go SHOPPING???!!!"