[LYSandra]

I was disappointed he apologized too. I love that he is a real man and talks tough. It's what we need during war.

[King Moonracer]

To backpedal on the eve of Memorial Day with boots on the ground is heartbreaking.

He's just getting ready to run for president again....D'oh he forgot.

[MNJohnnie]

I agree, however the President does NOT CT in a vacuum. He has to have allies.

It wasn't because he was afraid of "offending our enemies". He is after all responsible for thousands of dead or imprisoned Terrorists.

He apologized because it was those sorts of sound bites that gave the European Left and the Junk Media a club to beat him, and his European allies in various Countries Govt., to beat on him with.

His foes used these to create a bunch a PR stunt to run with. Now they are not "With the Terrorists" but merely opposing "Cowboy Bush and his out of control rhetoric".

[LS]

I was asked specifically about those phrases on at least two of the radio interviews I did last week for my book, and I (being a historian) immediately brought up the hot rhetoric of Franklin Roosevelt or William McKinley. Their style of speech was much different, but the meaning of the words was every bit as clear as "bring it on."

Politically, I think Bush thought he finally had to "admit" to some "mistakes" (and which military campaign in history does NOT have LOTS of mistakes?).

[TomGuy]

Who’s advising the President to avoid offending cold blooded killers? Family? Staff? Enemies?

Two new Cabinet appointees:

Dr. Phil, Secretary of Getting in Touch with Your Inner Self, and
Oprah Winphrey, Secretary of Sensitivity and Feelings

[proust]

New Tone bump.

[kenth]

A kinder, gentler, war on terror?

[Jedidah]

The President regrets the words, not the sentiments. The words gave his opposition ammo to use against him, thus providing a distraction from the real issues.

Chill.

[Berlin_Freeper]

The Left, through their media propaganda agents, have been incessantly hounding the President for years now demanding an "acknowledgment of mistakes" in regards to Iraq and/or the War on Terror.

What I sense is that the President, after years of having to side step these kinds of never ending inquisitions at press conference after press conference, has finally chosen to mention what can be termed as "slips of the tongue", as "mistakes" that he regrets.

What the Left propaganda agents really want to achieve in hearing, by incessantly demanding acknowledgments of mistakes, is what they think the public can be fooled into thinking were grand mistakes of strategy, such as it was a mistake in liberating Iraq or holding terrorists at Gitmo.

The President, rather cleverly I think, finally pulled the fangs out of their demands that he acknowledge mistakes, by making the mistakes a matter of a slip of the tongue, which is a simple common mistake that anyone can make on any given day.

President Bush probably felt extra pressure to make such an admission because of the November elections and by doing so he is building political capital among the fence sitters by showing... look they keep demanding from me to acknowledge mistakes and I have done so.

That is what I see. I think it is a smart political move to wrong foot the Left propaganda agents who were obviously going to keep building bigger and bigger hysterics about him needing to acknowledge mistakes as we get closer and closer to November and President Bush ripped those poisonous fangs out of their heads.

[fish hawk]

Why? Shelby Steele would say "White Guilt" and he would be right. I call it "Jello Guts" my self.

[lqclamar]

Just look how far we've come in less than a century - making apologies for being too "tough" for crying out loud! Teddy Roosevelt is spinning in his grave.

[RobFromGa]

Because he couldn't say this:

"My worst mistake was to have any faith that the UN would do anything, and I should have known that members of the Security Council were being paid under the table by Saddam in return for stonewalling, and that Kofi Annan and his UN culture of corruption was making billions of illegal gains from oil-for-food, which was money that was supposed to be used to help the children and families of Iraq,

and that the delays caused by the UN resolutions enabled the Russians to assist Saddam in hiding his WMD in Syria and elsewhere where they remain a threat to the developed world today.

Other than that, I'm fine with what happened after we decided to ignore the pansies in the UN and Tony and I with the help of some other brave countries took that assh@le Saddam out and whipped his butt, and his sadistic vermin kids too.

Would you like a followup question?"

[GLH3IL]

Oh heck. The President tossed a meaningless bone to the press for the worthless hounds to gnaw on. What's more important, the words he uttered, or the course of action he took witch is far stronger than ANY words he could have uttered. If 100,000 + troops in Iraq killing terrorists isn't saying "bring it on" in a very up close and personal way...I don't know what "bring it on" means anymore.

[Fruitbat]

I think W needs to go back into his WH closet, find the box with the balls in it that he once wore, and have them surgically reattached.

Texans ought to be embarrassed if this is occurring.

[Verginius Rufus]

Wanted Dead or Al

If that means Al Gore, I'll pass on both options.

[PerConPat]

Never apologize...it's a sign of weakness.

[MayflowerMadam]

Jesse Lee is a true American. He's in a tough battle, but keeps on plugging along.