Breaking: President Bush taking blame for Katrina response

CNN.com ^

[ExcursionGuy84]

The Bad side to President Bush's acceptance of resposibility...is...it gives Micahel "'Ole Flint & Steel" Mooore himself some Ammunition for his upcoming motion picture "depicting" this whole Hurricane Katrina Disaster.

[r9etb]

Politically? Maybe. Morally? No.

Politically, it's "No" as well. Bush said exactly the right thing, and if we assume he follows up on what he said, he'll come out the big winner on this. He's got the high ground here: he wants to find out what went wrong and fix it. The D's are left doing what they always do, which is to bitch and moan and shriek -- which is why they're floundering as a party.

[Wiseghy]

The tactic here seems to be to show an artful turnaround.
Rather than swim upstream against the mountian of bad, inaccurate press, he's going to roll with it and illustrate humility in, dare I say it, Clinton style. His kick *ss posture now on relief and long term commitment to the entire gulf region will be turned against the Democrats now and eliminate its use as a weapon for '06.

The Dems will also be unable to apply the "out-of-touch" and "in denial" labels to a President that acknowledges error.

Eventually, the word about political game playing in LA will come out, then it will be difficult for the Dems to swim against the stream.

[griswold3]

"There were some things done right and there were some things not done right, and whatever part of the government that was not right, we will find out what went wrong, I take full responsiblity to do so..."
THAT sounds like the MBA Bush to me. You are only as good as those that work for you.

[southlake_hoosier]

Now back to you Kofi can you step up and do the right thing?

When monkeys fly out of his Kofi can.

[cwb]

This was a good move...especially since the American people are still holding him least responsible for this failure. It shows that he is a leader...and if the media keeps up their pathetic diatribes, they'll only look worse in the long run. Most people see who was at fault, so Bush looks even more righteous in this response.

[r9etb]

Hey, newbies can't talk to us oldtimers like that!

Lighten up, newbie... ;-)

[mewzilla]

The D's are left doing what they always do, which is to bitch and moan and shriek -- which is why they're floundering as a party.

A note to the nation: You get what you vote for.

[syriacus]

I imagine the President knew the DNC concubines would be asking about his responsibility regarding Katrina.

I'd bet he prepared his answer and chose his words carefully, with full realization that the DNC concubines would attempt to use his words against him later.

[Rosemont]

" The Bad side to President Bush's acceptance of resposibility...is...it gives Micahel "'Ole Flint & Steel" Mooore himself some Ammunition for his upcoming motion picture "depicting" this whole Hurricane Katrina Disaster."

And Rev "Hymietown" Jackson an "I told you so." Jackson is not satisified that he got Brown as the sacrificial White Male. Notice how Nagin, Blanco, Landrieu are just spectators and given a pass... "Rev" Jackson should be brought up on hate crimes charges for his behavior.

[wallcrawlr]

I figured you'd like that.

Sorry gramps...I'll remember to respect my elders.

[leadpenny]

Yes sir/madam.

RHIP

[mulligan]

Cannot believe you wrote such
nonsense. Where does it say in any document that he (the President)
is responsible for what goes on in all 50 States.

Quite the opposite, federal
government has limited and
specific duties and all others are the States problems.

We have been going down hill for a long time and we continue to go down even more.

[michigander]

What is "Hell Yes" for $800 Alex?

LOL! I'm sorry. The correct answer was, what is...

"Are we capable of dealing with a severe attack? That's a very important question and it's in the national interest that we find out what went on so we can better respond," Bush replied.

[mewzilla]

Politically, it's "No" as well.

Well, that's going to depend on the nation. On whether it sees honorable behavior as a strength and not a weakness. And on whether we're willing to accept responsibility for our own shortcomings as citizens instead of trying to pass them off on anyone and everyone else. We'll see. But I'm an optimist, so here's hoping :)

[Perdogg]

well done! :)

[ExcursionGuy84]

Jackson is not satisified that he got Brown as the sacrificial White Male

Can't the "REV" ever get Any Satisfaction???

[tophat9000]

End the end, the captain of the ship is responsible for hitting the iceberg, even if he is asleep in his cabin. It is his ship. The federal government, in all of it's bloated glory, is the ship of GWB. In the end, he is master of the vessel, thus actually responsible for its errors. Right or wrong, that is the way it works.

I would have to disagree with than analogy... it would be closer to say that Pres in is commander of the fleet the states being the ships the governors are the captain

But if at the states had far more autonomy of action then any ship in the fleet...

Saying this is not to let the Fed off, because in a perverse way, the the more responsibility you lay on the fed the more power you take from the states and give to the fed's...

Right, ability and responsibility all go hand in hands...

States and there governments want the right of freedom of action then they must take responsibility for there actions...

[Paradox]

I have often compared Bush to Truman, to my liberal family. They don't agree, but something like this serves to back me up.

[softwarecreator]

Right.  This wasn't some "spur of the moment" admission, they discussed this one thoroughly over the last few days.  There's a reason he's saying this and it'll be interesting to see what the final outcome will be.