Bush Is Stumped on Question of Mistakes

AP ^ | 4/14/04 | CALVIN WOODWARD

[bkwells]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush acknowledged a good deal of introspection after all the questions lately about his government's actions before the Sept. 11 attacks and in Iraq, but not a whiff of contrition. Bush was asked in his prime-time news conference if he had made any mistakes.

"I'm sure something will pop into my head here," he said Tuesday. It didn't.

Bush is rarely one to second-guess himself and wasn't about to now, despite failures highlighted in the government's pre-Sept. 11, 2001, intelligence operations, the futile search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and all the recent violence there.

"I don't want to sound like I have made no mistakes," he said Tuesday night. "I'm confident I have."

But "maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one."

Excerpted... click for full article

[bkwells]

Here goes the liberal spin machine.....

[LurkedLongEnough]

How about "Let anyone who has made no mistakes help me out with this question."

[1Old Pro]

WOW, they just won't let this go will they. Notice how the press didn't ask about the booming economy?? This proves they were working together to make Bush look foolish. The fact that he did NOT answer the blame question stumped the media, not him.

[Mike Bates]

How many times could those jerks ask W to 'fess up to his mistakes, apologize, grovel, etc.? No wonder so few people have much respect for "journalists."

Michael M. Bates: My Side of the Swamp

[Lee Heggy]

I'm sure that he's left the seat up on the toilet once in awhile or clipped a fingernail too close...forgot to put a stamp on a letter...uh, left the keys in the ignition...?

[Joe 6-pack]

If Ben-Veniste, Kerrey and Gorelick had personally and heroically tracked down and shot the dirty 19 as they slept during the summer months of 2001, 9/11 would not have happened.

I wonder what their excuse is for not doing so?

[ClearCase_guy]

I'm a fan of The Apprentice with Donald Trump. There was one person (Kristi, I think) who led a team and lost. It came down to 2 people in front of Trump, and one was going to be fired.

Trump to first guy: "Did you screw this up?"
Response: "I did not screw it up. I was excellent. We should have won."

Trump to Kristi: "Did you screw this up?"
Kristi: "Well, I should have been better. Mistakes were made ... I don't know what happened."

Trump: "Kristi, you're fired. Not because you screwed up. I'm not sure you did. Maybe it was this guy next to you who screwed up. But you didn't defend yourself. In business, if you don't defend yourself, no one will do it for you."

In short: Giving people a list of your failures is NEVER smart. Bush knows that.

[mondoman]

"I did not have sex with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky", duh, maybe I forgot to define "sex".....

[luvbach1]

Reminds me of the question put to President Eisenhower years ago, and I paraphrase: Questioner: "Could you tell us of any instance in wich Vice President Nixon was actively involved in decision making?" President Eisenhower (with quizical look and pause): "Give me a week or two and I may be able to come up with one."

[VRWCmember]

President Bush acknowledged a good deal of introspection after all the questions lately about his government's actions before the Sept. 11 attacks and in Iraq, but not a whiff of contrition.

He has done nothing to merit a "whiff of contrition". You know, the media never made a big deal about the lack of contrition in slick willie's famous mea culpa speech.

[Dahoser]

It's like that moronic interview question, "What are your weaknesses?" You're not going to provide any ammunition that's going to come right back at you, and any mistake W admitted last night would come flying back at him. Of course, given a long enough time to think and the opportunity to respond again, he might consider saying that one of his biggest mistakes was not doing a Hercules cleaning out the Augean Stables routine by getting rid of every last Clintonista vermin.

[BossLady]

I wish the creepy reporters would ask some of the terrorist-types questions like this....but that would mean they would have to do some sort of actual investigative work.....

[j.cam]

Bush answered that question in the best way possible. If he said he made no mistakes, the liberal media would have declared him arrogant and out of touch. If he gave them a mistake, the liberal media led by Sumner Redstone would have used it against him in the election.

What is funny is the scum in the liberal media have never ever ever asked Clinton about the tape of him admitting he refused to accept bin Ladin from the Sudan. In that case, you have Clinton admitting he did something wrong, yet the liberal media won't cover it or ask him if he was long. In this case, they have nothing on Bush, so like the partisan 9/11 commission, the liberal media is fishing for Bush, and covering for Clinton.

[mountaineer]

Doggoneit, once again I must have watched the wrong press conference, because the one I saw didn't show Bush being stumped on anything. Instead, he was resolute and rational. Go figure.

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

Well there was that pretzel incident. A failure to properly masticate it.

[newgeezer]

Bush Is Stumped on Question of Mistakes

It's times like these when I'd pay to see Dubya morph into Coach Bob Knight, telling the press whores a thing or two about their stupid questions.

[bkwells]

Ping!

[verity]

The only mistake was not beating the crap out of the journalist!

[TexasCajun]

President Bush, "Well, on hindsight, my biggest mistake was not firing Dickie Clarke when I took office."

[VadeRetro]

"My biggest mistake was expecting intelligent, well-intended questions at this news conference."