NBC's Gregory Declares: Bush's 'Reputation of Incompetence' Has 'Stained' GOP

NewsBusters.org ^ | April 25, 2013 | Kyle Drennan

[Kaslin]

On the eve of the dedication of George W. Bush's presidential library, NBC's Meet the Press moderator David Gregory appeared on Wednesday's Nightly News to tear down the former president's legacy, beginning the report by remarking that it was "difficult to remember" Bush's popularity after the September 11th attacks. [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Gregory described how Iraq War intelligence failures "formed the backdrop to criticism that the President underestimated the challenges he faced....And grew stubborn in the face of mounting setbacks." Gregory further proclaimed: "What grew into a reputation for incompetence stained the administration and the GOP brand after Hurricane Katrina."

NBC's Gregory Declares: Bush's 'Reputation of Incompetence' Has 'Stained' GOP

Historian Michael Beschloss followed by touting how "George W. Bush's name was barely mentioned" at the 2012 Republican National Convention as a result.

Gregory then promoted how successful the Obama White House and liberal press corps were at blaming Bush for the still struggling economy: "As the economy even now struggles to climb back from the near collapse of 2008, many Americans still blame President Bush, holding him even more accountable for the state of the economy than President Obama, according to last fall's election exit poll."

Gregory did briefly note: "These issues overshadow other accomplishments – the President's place in launching the school reform movement, his work to combat aids in Africa, even his willingness to tackle entitlement spending."

On Thursday's Today, Gregory began a similar report on the Bush legacy by announcing: "As he left Washington four years ago, the public sat in harsh judgment of George W. Bush, with roughly two thirds of the country disapproving of his job performance. The scars ran deep over multiple wars, the terror debate, and a collapsed economy."

Gregory also made sure to repeat the line about Bush's "incompetence" having "stained" the Republican Party.

However, unlike his Nightly News hit piece, Gregory did acknowledge Bush's rising approval rating: "Mr. Bush has made up ground in the public's mind and his record is viewed more charitably....As time passes and passions cool, Mr. Bush has grown more popular."

Here is a full transcript of Gregory's April 24 Nightly News report:

7:10PM ET

BRIAN WILLIAMS: Back in this country, the George W. Bush Presidential Library set to open tomorrow. This is a live picture of the scene on the campus of SMU in Dallas tonight. Tomorrow's dedication ceremony will be attended by the five people alive who know what it's like to sit in the Oval Office. President Barack Obama, both Bushes, 41 and 43, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter. We get our report tonight from NBC's David Gregory, who was our White House correspondent during the Bush 43 years.

DAVID GREGORY: It's difficult to remember just how popular President Bush was in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.

GEORGE W. BUSH: I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]

GREGORY: The fact that America was not attacked again during the Bush years is a lasting legacy. But so, too, is the bitter debate over whether the war on terror eroded civil liberties. Mr. Bush will always be viewed as a wartime leader. But it was the decision to invade Iraq that would prove the most divisive.

BUSH: It's a war of necessity. In my judgment we had no choice when we look at the intelligence I looked at that says the man was a threat.

GREGORY: The faulty intelligence, the failure to find weapons of mass destruction, formed the backdrop to criticism that the President underestimated the challenges he faced.

BUSH: In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.

GREGORY: And grew stubborn in the face of mounting setbacks.

BUSH: I hear the voices and I read the front page and I know the speculation, but I'm the decider.

GREGORY: What grew into a reputation for incompetence stained the administration and the GOP brand after Hurricane Katrina.

MICHAEL BESCHLOSS [PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN]: This is a president who, in his own time, he would be the first to say is very unpopular. You look at the Republican convention last year. George W. Bush's name was barely mentioned.

GREGORY: As the economy even now struggles to climb back from the near collapse of 2008, many Americans still blame President Bush, holding him even more accountable for the state of the economy than President Obama, according to last fall's election exit poll. These issues overshadow other accomplishments – the President's place in launching the school reform movement, his work to combat aids in Africa, even his willingness to tackle entitlement spending.

MICHAEL GERSON [FORMER CHIEF BUSH SPEECHWRITER]: I think these are issues that over time will wear very well. They'll show that the President was forward-looking and knew where the country was headed.

GREGORY: And as I talked to advisers of President Bush's over the past several days, they think that's being borne out, that idea, with current events. Look, the Republican Party's moving back toward President Bush on immigration. And when it comes to the war on terrorism, they point out President Obama has continued many of President Bush's counter-terror policies. Brian.

WILLIAMS: Our former White House correspondent David Gregory, these days moderator of Meet the Press. David, we'll check back in with you tomorrow night.

We want to let you know tomorrow morning on Today Matt Lauer will have an exclusive live interview with former President Bush. And we'll get the first tour through the new Bush Presidential Library.

[detective]

Gee, the MSM attack Bush and blame him for everything. What a surprise. Who would have guessed?

[Hot Tabasco]

hope I live to see the day the truth about WMD comes out and Dubya is vindicated.

Your request has fallen on deaf ears, nobody really cares for the truth anymore.....

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[Da Coyote]

Eh?

An NBC dork Dares to talk about “staining”?

Bwahahahahaaaaaaaaa!

[Enterprise]

Hey Gregory: Just think of all the Pulitzer Prizes that are going to be awarded for the coverage of the Gosnell trial!

[yldstrk]

http://keithhennessey.com/2013/04/24/smarter/

[Redplum]

Laughable.

Dubya will be remembered, and remembered fondly, long after the homo-sissy Gregory and his DNC mouthpiece buddies are long gone...

[billhilly]

That Howdy Doody SOB deserves a perch on MSNBC.

[a fool in paradise]

ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, ESPN, MSNBC, LA Times, Boston Glob, NY Times, Washington Post ALL have stained reputations as a result of ginned stories they ran during the Bush era.

Sounds like a case of projection.

[SkyDancer]

No wonder that sit-coms in the US are fading what with the statements of the MSM to give us a laugh.

[Hardastarboard]

I would so like to kick David Gregory in the . . . A full, running wind up kick, with steel toed work boots. While holding a 30 round magazine.

[SuziQ]

Horse hockey!

[jospehm20]

That would be fun.

[jwalsh07]

Who gives a crap what three metrosexual quiffs think about anything. My God, three finer examples of the feminization of American manhood could not be found.

[Pelham]

“The truth is William Jefferson Clinton and his buddies Janet Reno and Andrew Cuomo are the arch-villains. Read Paul Sperry’s “The Great American Bank Robbery” or Tom Sowell’s “The Housing Boom And Bush” to get the true story of the disaster.”

It was neither the fault of Clinton nor Bush. Their role in the whole debacle was believing that feel-good government programs wouldn’t have any consequences, and they made the developing problem worse. But the bubble was the result of innovation in mortgage finance and the refusal of lending houses to heed their risk officers, not misguided government meddling.

It was the result of reliance on David X Li’s Gaussian copula function, on replacing traditional lending with brokers and bundling, with derivatives driving the lending process, and lending CEOs putting huge short term profit ahead of sound lending practice.

The factual case can be learned in Muolo and Padilla’s ‘Chain of Blame’, in Gillian Tett’s ‘Fools Gold’, in Yves Smith’s ‘Econned’.

These authors warned of the impending crisis as it was developing. They are not johnny come lately writers peddling their favorite political excuse. And 80 yr old Thomas Sowell was ill served by his researchers who don’t understand the particulars of the mortgage business during the bubble.

[Brad from Tennessee]

In the column linked below Howie Carr sums up David Gregory as an “unctuous NBC rump swab.” This was after MSNBC fired Don Imus and an almost hysterical Gregory begged Al Sharpton’s forgiveness, on air, for Gregory's frequent appearances on Imus's show.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1816612/posts

[Notary Sojac]

By the summer of 2005, it was clear to anyone with three functioning neurons that housing was massively bubblicious. Those who did not recognize it were either mentally challenged, or had personal, corrupt reasons to delay the "pop".

I am no financial genius, but when I saw my neighborhood of $175K houses become $500K houses within three years - prices that no current owners could cover on their current salaries without signing a suicidal note - I bailed immediately. We sold our house $50K past the peak and never looked back, except to pity the fools that bought it.

There were two things Dubya could have done in late 2005/early 2006 to avert the 2008 meltdown (and possibly the election of Obama, which of course he could not have foreseen).

(1) - make it crystal clear through public and private channels that not one taxpayer dollar would ever be used to backstop overvalued mortgage paper during his presidency, that "bailout" would be used by him only to describe what his dad did every year on his birthday.

(2) - announce SEC investigations into the ratings agencies to see if their AAA scores were objective or in any way tainted, with prosecution to follow if warranted. (Still needs doing in my view, the statute of limitations has not yet run out)

No action by any legislator, Democrat or GOP, required.

[driftless2]

read the books. Government meddling.

[Pelham]

Read the books? Meaning what, that you imagine that you know the subject?

Since you are so well informed on the subprime debacle you can surely tell us about the role played by John Paulson’s Magnetar fund. Of David X Li’s Gaussian copula function. You can describe how a credit default swap differs from a collateralized debt obligation. You know which lenders the CRA applied to. You know about Roland Arnall and Ameriquest and Argent Mortgage. You know all of this information pertinent to the rise of the bubble and its collapse.

And so your statement that “government meddling” explains it all is intended as a joke. Because you’re aware that the big players in subprime were not subject to government regulation at all since they were not deposit takers.

There was a small band here at FR warning of big trouble coming in the housing market. Some of us knew players in the subprime industry and were aware of looming trouble as early as 2004. And we wrote about it. You should have paid attention. You might have learned something.

[Kickass Conservative]

As I have explained to Libtards that bring up the “Bush lied about WMD’s in Iraq” crap, if President Bush KNEW there were no WMD’s, we would have found WMD’s the first day of the War.

[Pelham]

You get an A on your essay.

Few people know that we had no obligation, zero, to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They had ceased to be government agencies back in 1970. The decision to bail them out was a political decision made by Dubya.

Some of the people in the rating agencies had tried to do their jobs, but they were hounded out of doing so by a powerful bipartisan coalition in Congress that wanted things to keep rolling along just as they were. Until they rolled off the cliff and took the larger economy along for the ride.