Lucky Duckies
George W. Bush says it sure is lucky we have him around to cope with all the disasters that keep unfolding on his watch:
George W. Bush began his presidency with the worst terrorist attack on American soil and he is ending it with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. In between, he confronted a hurricane that nearly wiped New Orleans off the map as his administration showed ineptitude in its response.
Now, as he spends his last months in office trying to avert a global economic collapse, Mr. Bush has been telling people privately that it’s a good thing he’s in charge.
“He said that if it was going to happen at all, he was glad it was happening under his presidency, because he had a good group of people in D.C. working for him,” Dru Van Steenberg, one of several small-business owners who met with Mr. Bush in San Antonio earlier this week. The president expressed the same sentiment, others said, during a similar private session in Chantilly, Va., the next day.
Steve Benen remarks that “The notion that he bears responsibility for his failures apparently doesn’t enter his mind.”
In most democracies, of course, it would be very unlikely for such a failed leader as Bush to find himself in this position. One Bush’s popularity slumped irrevocably below the horizon line, the GOP would have dumped him in favor of some more plausible political leader (perhaps someone like John McCain, a Republican not tainted by the Bush brand…) and there would have been a new election so that the country could face whatever problems might come down the pike next under the leadership of someone who had the confidence of the voters and some kind of mandate to govern.
35 Responses to “Lucky Duckies”
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October 12th, 2008 at 9:37 am
So Bush wants this crisis on his watch yet is still bungling it beyond all belief?
http://www.sunstateactivist.org/ssablog/
October 12th, 2008 at 9:54 am
In a parliamentary democracy, the handling of the forcedown of the EP-3 over Hainan Island in the spring of 2001 would have been enough to shake the Bush government.
In a parliamentary democracy, Bush wouldn’t have been around for Katrina because 9/11 would have brought down the government, maybe not immediately, but within six months as the failure to capture Bin Laden started to sink in.
I know I’ll be standing there on Constitution Avenue, both middle fingers held high as the final Bush motorcade shamefully crawls down the way, if there will be one and he just doesn’t slink quietly into the night like the moral coward he is.
October 12th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Yeah, good thing George Bush, Jr. was in charge when he got a PDB entitled, “Bin Laden Determined to Attack in America,” coupled with a CIA envoy to emphasize the threat’s severity. Thanks goodness. And thank goodness ignoring that threat didn’t lead to an unbelievable attack on American soil that somehow led to an unbelievably destructive and costly invasion of a country unrelated to the attack. Thank goodness.
OK, George Bush, you’ve tried to cover your ass. You can fuck off back to Texas and drink yourself into a perpetual stupor now.
October 12th, 2008 at 10:13 am
ed beat me too it.
http://www.avatara.com/operationignore0.html
October 12th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Well, at least we can state without fear of contradiction that as we sit here today, Bush is the greatest president since Clinton.
October 12th, 2008 at 10:26 am
It was lucky that George Bush was in office when Al Qaeda struck on 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina slammed into the gulf coast - it was fortunate for Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater and Bu$hco’s Gang O,/strong> Pirates to be able to secure $billions in no-bid contracts for “reconstruction”.
October 12th, 2008 at 10:27 am
It recalls the line about Bush being born on third base and always thinking that he hit a triple.
Just clueless…
October 12th, 2008 at 10:47 am
As others have pointed out, this is mostly a consequence of using the presidential over the parliamentary system. There are examples of prime ministers who have held on for two or three years after entering periods of terminal unpopularity, but I can’t think of any lasting as long as Bush, or after anything like the 9-11, Katria, 2008 crash trifecta.
But Latin American countries use the presidential system, and there are a number of instances of presidents just resigning when they reach Bush like levels of unpopularity, so this might be a peculiarly American thing.
October 12th, 2008 at 11:02 am
But, the Constitution is wonderful and perfect and we should never change it. Like, checks and balances!!!1!1!
October 12th, 2008 at 11:24 am
I wonder if this notion that the creator is somehow above it all is unique to Christianity?
October 12th, 2008 at 11:30 am
So now Bush is the Great Delegator.
October 12th, 2008 at 11:36 am
“and there would have been a new election”
There’d be an early election because the government was unpopular? That’s not how it works.
October 12th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Early elections are common in Australia and Isreal, and not a whole lot of other places.
October 12th, 2008 at 11:45 am
Thank you. I needed a good hard laugh this morning.
In most parliamentarian countries a vote of no confidence can be called to remove the prime minister and in some cases the entire parliament. It’s not a question of mere popularity.
There have been several times that I think a vote of no confidence may have succeeded in this country. Shortly after Hurricane Katrina. At certain points during the Iraq War. Now. In a more rational world, 9/11 might well have triggered such a vote since you certainly wouldn’t want the team who allowed such a huge attack through their guard to mount a counter offensive.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Early elections in Australia are more to get the timing that best advantages the government of the day.
But to win a vote of no confidence in the PM or (state) Premier, the majority in parliament would have to vote itself out, not a majority, because a confidence vote will run on party lines. So rather than a vote of no-confidence, what happens is a party-room vote for a leadership spill.
And any time there is a threat of a leadership spill, either at national or state level, a concern is whether the new leader will have enough time to get established before the time comes when it is necessary to call an election … and, indeed, there are those who would blame the defeat of the unpopular New South Wales Liberals by the unpopular NSW Labor state government to the late date of its leadership spill. A change of leaders therefore normally leads to most of the parliamentary term being served before the election is called.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Well, the Constitution said we had the whole “impeachment” thing, but apparently that can only be used against either Nixon or Bill Clinton, so, never mind.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Mind you, the United States of America might be substantially smaller under a parliamentary system, with many of Karl Rove’s “Red States” residing within a different sovereignty.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
You’d be surprised at how resilient Parliamentary political parties can be at following a leader into oblivion. Don’t forget that a Parliamentary system would bring much tighter discipline.
Having said that, it’s difficult to think of a western political leader in living memory that’s been as incompetent as Bush.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
“In most democracies, of course,…”
the people would realize after the first disaster that they’ve been snookered, and would demand action. The fact that Bush still has double-digit approval ratings today speaks ill of the American people.
His relationship to those people seems more like that of a divine monarch, and the rest of us are heretics and traitors.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Thank heavens for George Bush. Whole philosophical concepts became moot because of him. I knew humans were malleable before, but Bush’s whims and the subsequent Republican AUTOMATIC re-alignment behind his crazy notions really calls into question the whole Free Will thing. The Republican autonomic conversions — time and again — became spooky and dismal. Just think for a minute about the McCain choice of Sarah Palin. Republicans were hammering Obama for inexperience. Then McCain announced his choice — the word “Palin” hadn’t yet quit echoing through the room — and “experience” became immediately irrelevant. It was as if the GOP collectively had said, like Ralphie in A Christmas Story, “Flick? Flick who?” But it was Bush with his support of torture who really blazed the trail.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
I like how Bill Maher put it once. “On your watch we’ve lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon, and the city of New Orleans. Maybe you’re just not lucky!”
To be fair, our international reputation has gone down the tubes, but we haven’t actually lost our allies. And New Orleans wasn’t completely destroyed either.
On the other hand though, Maher said that in late 2005. We’ve lost a bit more since then.
October 12th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Rich, that was a line about his father. The follow up for W that someone came up with is “he was born on 3rd and promptly stole 2nd”
October 12th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
I can’t help but sort of think that this story was carefully leaked in the hopes that it would attract just the sort of attention it’s getting now. After all, if there’s one thing Bush wants and needs — especially these days — it’s people talking about him. And how better to do that than say something as unselfconsciously asinine as this?
October 12th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Any resemblance between George W Bush and Alfred E Neuman is not the least bit coincidental.
October 12th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
It’s just his pathological personality talking. He probably has exactly the same view of himself as president that he imagined before he was selected.
October 12th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Jim Hightower said:
“George W. [Bush] was born on third, but thinks he hit a triple…” October 21, 1989.
Molly Ivins has repeated the quote, usually attributing it to Hightower.
Ann Richards said of GHWB, ” Poor George, he was born with a silver foot in his mouth.
October 12th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
In his NBC interview at the Olympics, Bush said that the United States did not have any real problems.
Once again, the United States has a President who is mentally ill.
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