Last night, W held a televised press conference during prime time, ostensibly to assuage the American public after a particularly violent period in Iraq, as well as to answer criticisms that his administration did not do enough to prevent the tragedy of 9/11. I’ll admit that I try and avoid watching W’s press conferences (what few he holds), because it doesn’t take long before I am engraged by his pointed lack of eloquence, smug arrogance, and self-righteous evasiveness in answering questions in any meaningful way. Last night was no different.
Here is the official transcript of the press conference. I was very surprised to see that for once they didn’t edit his grammatical mistakes in this transcript, which didn’t take long to crop up. In fact, I was somewhat amused to see that he couldn’t even get his first sentence out without fucking up: “This has been tough weeks in that country. [Iraq]” My amusement quickly turned to anger as his opening statement went on to droningly repeat jingoistic talking points that did little to address everyone’s concerns over the quagmire Iraq has become and the complacency of the administration before the tragedy of 9/11.
When W opened the floor to questions from the press corps, I had high hopes that they would be able to get some kind of substantive statement out of him, but he was defiant in his refusal to waver from his talking points, which as usual were delivered in his maddening pseudo-sentence syntax. For those of you with a low attention span (and a sense of humor), you can check out the satire “A Busy Person’s Guide to the Bush Press Conference,” which nicely encapsulates his simplistic views of the world in a manner disturbingly close to the real responses.
I really believe that the press corps once again gave W a free ride, asking him such obviously loaded questions that of course he would deny them. As Time Magazine points out, “the reporters in the room seemed less interested in whether Bush would keep his word than in whether he would admit fallibility.” Did they really think that W would agree that Iraq is another Vietnam? Did they really think he would outright admit that he and his administration made mistakes pre-9/11? I didn’t expect such frank admissions, but I at least expected W to accept that his administration bears some culpability in the tragic events of the past couple of years. It was not to be, though, and when a reporter asked W what his biggest mistake has been, he was unable to elucidate any kind of clear answer and instead “grimaced, sighed, rambled and chuckled under his breath on Tuesday, before saying he could not think of a single mistake he had made since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks:”
Q: In the last campaign, you were asked a question about the biggest mistake you’d made in your life, and you used to like to joke that it was trading Sammy Sosa. 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 you learned from it?
A: I wish you would have given me this written question ahead of time, so I could plan for it. (Laughter.) John, I’m sure historians will look back and say, gosh, he could have 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 an answer, but it hadn’t yet.
… [ramble about Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein]
I hope I – I don’t want to sound like I’ve 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.
A recent satire in the Borowitz Report takes this point to a humorous extreme when it reports that “[W] received some much needed good news today as the White House revealed conclusive evidence that the president is perfect.”
I saw a glimmer of hope when one reporter asked W why he insists on appearing before the 9/11 Commission with Dick Cheney in tow. As MSNBC points out, this is an unprecedented “arrangement [that] confirms Bush’s inability to articulate anything without a script–or a tutor by his side.” The article goes on to point out that “A top Republican strategist dubbed the legal document striking the unusual deal ’The Wizard of Oz letter’ because it strips away the myth that Bush is in charge.” This is a very damning statement indeed, but it comes as no surprise to me. In any case, W did little to answer the question posed to him:
Q: Why won’t you testify before the 9/11 commission without Cheney at your side?
A: Because they want to ask us questions.
Q: I asked why you’re appearing together, instead of separately as they requested?
A: Because we can both answer this way.
Great answer…
Before I end this acerbic screed, I need to write about another thing that has been grating on me. A couple of weeks ago, W attended the Radio and Television Correspondent’s Dinner, where a mood of levity usually results in attendees engaging in some good old-fashioned self-deprecating humor. That’s all well and good, but W proved just how unthinking and crass he can be when he showed a picture of himself looking under some chairs and quipped, “I know the Weapons Of Mass Destruction are here somewhere.” That is not fucking funny, and I was amazed that the media did not pick up on this gigantic faux pas. However, not everyone let this slip, and Music For America has compiled a video containing excerpts of this fiasco along with some food for thought that W should take to heart before he shoots his mouth off again.
OK, I feel much better (for now). That rant has been building in me for days, and last night’s press conference was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I noticed that there haven’t been many comments on the site lately; hopefully my extremely polarizing views on W will encourage some discussion. 
