Bush Still Doesn't Understand

As you may know by now, George Bush's book Decision Points is to be released very soon now.   We already know that he confesses to breaking U.S. and international law by confessing to ordering torture be used.   Now he reveals that he still doesn't understand the terrible mistakes he made in his administration's failure to adequately respond to Hurricane Katrina.

To promote his book, Bush did an interview with Matt Lauer of NBC.   The interview will be aired on November 8th (Monday), but portions of it have been released (to try to get people interested in seeing it).   In the interview, Bush talks about the picture above (which shows him viewing the destruction of New Orleans from thousands of feet in the air as he flies over on his way back to Washington).

Bush says the picture was a mistake.   He says he was wrong to allow the picture to be taken or released to the media because it made him look "detached and uncaring".   He told Lauer:

“It's always my fault. I mean I was the one who should have said, A, don't take my picture, B, let's land in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, C, let's don't even come close to the area. Let's - the next place to be seen is in Washington at a command center. I mean, it was my fault.”

Bush also admitted it was a mistake to publicly tell FEMA director Mike Brown he was "doing a heck of a job".   Bush said,   "I knew Mike was under pressure and wanted to boost his morale.   I never imagined those words of encouragement would become an infamous entry in the political lexicon."   He complained that "critics turned my words of encouragement into a club to bludgeon me."

Even years later, this fool doesn't have a clue.   He thinks his only mistake was in not adequately controlling his public relations!   Someone needs to tell him that even though his public relations were terrible that was not what made the American people so mad.   He wasn't punished for a silly picture or inane statement.  

His mistake was much larger than that.   His mistake was the total failure of his administration to get help to people who were clearly in a desperate situation, and his own failure to rectify the situation when it became obvious to everyone that Brown and others were incompetent failures who had no idea of what to do.   His mistake was in failing to take charge of the situation and get something done.

And there was no excuse for it.   How is it that every news organization in the world could get there immediately, but it took FEMA days to make even a feeble and inadequate effort?   There is no excuse for the Bush administration's complete failure after Hurricane Katrina, and Bush's belief that all he did wrong was make a public relations goof just shows he still doesn't understand anything at all.   No one would have cared about the picture or the stupid statement if Bush would have just seen that help got to New Orleans quickly -- but he didn't.

Bush also said in the book that his feelings were hurt when rapper Kayne West said,   "George Bush doesn't care about black people."   Too bad.   Sometimes the truth hurts.