Hat tip: CS
The Bush Era is coming to a close with a resounding thud, and the 25 percenters - led by the 25 percenters in chief - still fail to see what the other 75 percent of America sees:
Nearing the bitter end of eight ruinous years in office, President Bush still won’t acknowledge a single substantive thing he did wrong. Asked if he had any regrets in a CNN interview yesterday, Bush copped to a few public-relations gaffes many years ago. His tone, however, was anything but apologetic. In fact, he seemed quite pleased with himself.
Why not? To steal a line from P.J. O’Rourke, conservatives tell us that government doesn’t work - then, once elected, they prove it.
Bush did at least express some remorse over his “cowboy rhetoric” - “dead or alive,” “bring ‘em on” and “mission accomplished.” I suspect the 25 percenters wouldn’t even give you this.
Bush: “I think a president who tries to be popular is a president who could fail the country. And I remind people popularity is fleeting. Principles are forever. And there’ve been times when I’ve been popular and times when I haven’t been popular. But the job of the president is to make good, tough decisions based upon solid principles that are etched in his soul. I know there’s this kind of preoccupation by some by popularity polls, but for me they’re just moments, they come and go. But what doesn’t change [is] what you believe and can you defend those beliefs.”
Here again - no recognition that he himself failed the country, “principles etched in his soul” and all.
We cannot expect the 25 percenters, including the 25 percenters in chief, to ever understand this. The principle of Teh Freedom! may be grand; the decision to invade a country halfway around the world that never attacked us with a half-baked plan for the post-invasion period was how this president put those “principles” into action.
“Principle” isn’t enough. You’ve got to be competent, and you’ve got to be smart. The 25 percenters have been neither - and now their failure is etched on our collective soul.
