Saying "I'm sorry" fails to soothe public anger

[133724]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Even saying he's sorry isn't working for U.S. President George W. Bush these days.

Bush has used the words "mistakes," "apologize" and "responsibility" in trying to calm public anger over the Iraq war, substandard care of wounded veterans and the botched response to Hurricane Katrina.

Still his approval rating hovers around 35 percent in opinion polls, just above the lows of his two-term presidency.

<snip>

"The public responds to events. Taking responsibility is very nice, but does it end the war or win the war faster because he says 'I take responsibility'?" said Stephen Hess, a professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University in Washington.

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN0320766720070504?feedType=RSS

[ginnyinWI]

1. saying you are sorry isn't enough if you don't change your actions.

Ask any spouse.

[Lil Missy]

2. He's not really sorry and doesn't think he ever makes mistakes

He only regrets that he didn't lie well enough to fool all the people all the time.

[marylanddem]

6. Right. He's a transparent phony. Who could believe anything

that comes out of that silver-spoon-fed mouth?

[geiger]

3. Hes sorry alright, a sorry excuse for a President.

[Warpy]

4. Those words are empty, and we all know it

because not one of this gang of criminials will try to change a damned thing. They'll just bull on ahead, continuing to smash everything they touch.

They deserve impeachment. They really need to be impeached. However, their own rigidly loyal party won't do it and our spineless party lacks the votes in the Senate to do it.

All we can hope is that they continue to destroy everything they touch for another two years. This is incredibly painful to all of us and dangerous to some of us, but by the end of the reign of error, people may finally be so disgusted with the lot of them that their party will either have to make some drastic changes or die altogether.

[Phredicles]

5. It's not like we're seeing any effort to make amends,

or even any evidence that these expressions of regret are sincere.

In a parliamentary system, I believe it would just be expected that the executive would have long since resigned before things got to this point.

[SoCalDem]

7. People see through phony apologies n/t

[Javaman]

8. And when exactly did moron* say he was personally sorry

and completely responcible for all his fuck ups?

Did he* actually do those things?

If so, I must have missed it, because the sound of his voice is like and ice pick going through my head.