Bush: "I Was Unprepared For War," "I'm Sorry" For The Economic Crisis

President Bush let it all out today during an interview with ABC News' Charlie Gibson. Bush delivered a mea culpa on Iraq, the economic crisis and the 2008 election outcome for Republicans.

Below are three write-ups on different parts of the interview:

From ABC News: Bush on the Iraq War...

Looking back on his eight years in the White House, President George W. Bush said he was "unprepared" for war and pinpointed incorrect intelligence that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction as "biggest regret of all the presidency."

"I think I was unprepared for war," Bush told ABC News' Charlie Gibson in an interview airing today on "World News." "In other words, I didn't campaign and say, 'Please vote for me, I'll be able to handle an attack,'" he said. "In other words, I didn't anticipate war. Presidents -- one of the things about the modern presidency is that the unexpected will happen."

From AP: Bush on the economic crisis...

President George W. Bush expressed remorse that the global financial crisis has cost jobs and harmed retirement accounts and said he'll back more government intervention if needed to ease the recession.

"I'm sorry it's happening, of course," Bush said in a wide-ranging interview with ABC's "World News," which was airing Monday. "Obviously I don't like the idea of people losing jobs, or being worried about their 401(k)s. On the other hand, the American people got to know that we will safeguard the system. I mean, we're in. And if we need to be in more, we will."

From CNN: Bush on helping lose the election for McCain...

President Bush told an interviewer that his presidency may have helped Barack Obama win the White House.

"I think it was a repudiation of Republicans," he told Charlie Gibson of ABC News, according to a transcript released by the network Monday. "And I'm sure some people voted for Barack Obama because of me. I think most people voted for Barack Obama because they decided they wanted him to be in their living room for the next four years explaining policy."

Comments

[hnealehcn]

I voted for Bush once but this guy planed to attack Saddam way before he entered the White House to prove that he is better than his father who did not invade Iraq. Please contact his ex treasure secretary Mr. O'Niel for confirmation.

[RedsnGreens]

Did anyone else see The Daily Show last night with Jon commenting on the interview? OMG, I thought he was gonna kill somebody. Jon is so funny. Bush, Jr. provides him with so much fodder, but also with so much stress. Less than 2 months, Jon.

Jon's best line (w/death stare): "I'm gonna miss you sooo much"

[julianne]

1) Before lying his way into the Presidency, he told his friend that he would be a war President in order to push through his domestic agenda. The entire runup to the invasion of Iraq (it is not a war, it is an invasion and occupation) was a massive psy-ops campaign against the American people who did not want a war.

2) He and all his henchmen were unprepared for 9/11 or were complicit in allowing an attack on the United States to transpire.

3) Cheney and the people behind Cheney used Bush to take a wrecking ball to our economy and dollar. They did it on purpose.

The Bush Administration and the high end of the Republican Party are traitors and criminals. Bush, the pathological liar, went on Charlie Gibson's corporate suck-up program to continue to protect his butt from being brought to trial for breaking international and national laws.

[BrickSykes]

Please, Guys! The events of Bush's first year-and-a-half in office are well documented and reported in "Bush At War, State of Denial, Part III" by Bob Woodward. That he was '...unprep­ared for war' is way too simple an explanation (and excuse) for so complex a screw-up and meltdown! George W. Bush and the GOP brought this entire mess ON THEMSELVES!! Hundreds of Americans knew that he was in way over his head! George W. Bush and the entire Republican Party are totally responsible!! Period!!

What I would like to see happen now is the Republican Party and all its vast infrastructure kindly, and mercifully, back away from National Affairs for at least Ten Years so that some Sane People can 'Try' to put our country back together. Please, someone tell their leadership that attempting to Tear Down the Obama Administration the way they did Clinton, and Carter, will only serve to finalize their destruction!! The American People have finally seen and come to realize acutely that Republican Branded 'Conservatism' in its present state is absolutely INCAPABLE of Governing the United States of America!! The politics of Character Assassination and Personal Destruction will NOT Be Tolerated any Longer!! Continue at your own Peril!!

When you decide how to reconstruct your party just make sure that TRUE Patriotism, the Rule of Law, and TRUST in our Constitution are in the final mix! Do that and America will welcome you back and wish you well!

Brick

[flossophy]

BrickSykes, you are so misinformed.

I'll only comment on your last rant: The Democrats / Obama has disdain for the Constitution because it doesn't give government enough power to regulate peoples' lives. Go look up that clip of Obama on some left wing radio show in Chicago, where he laments the limits of the Constitution.

Rule of law? How can you say the Dems respect rule of law when the judges they appoint would rather re-interpret law according to their political policy preferences. To me that is more dangerous than a strict constructionist ever could be.

btw - too many exclamation marks in your post.

[JohnSawyer]

Obama's comments on the Constitution were unfortunate (if I'm thinking of the same remarks as flossophy), but Obama wasn't complaining about some supposed lack of Constitutional regulation of people's lives--he stated that he thought the Constitution was a flawed document, because its sections that relate to slavery, didn't condemn it, but made a few allowances for it. Obama didn't seem to realize that these allowances were inserted by the founding fathers for at least two practical reasons:

1) To entice the slave states to sign the Constitution--if they hadn't, that might have resulted in a worse situation--two Americas, one entirely dedicated to slavery, and thus not fixable by later legislation to eliminate it, but instead only by war. Unfortunately, the non-slave states never made good on their anti-slavery intentions, and so we got the Civil War anyway.

2) The "three-fifths" clause was not meant to demean slaves, but rather to prevent the slave states from having unequal representation in the federal government--if all slaves had been counted as whole persons, the slave states, with their massive slave populations, would have been able to railroad through any legislation they wanted, including legislation to permanently enshrine slavery in the US. And since slaves weren't allowed to vote anyway, using them simply for body count purposes, to boost the slave states' influence, was doubly distasteful.

[JohnSawyer]

flossophy also thinks Republicans respect the rule of law. Actually, Bush's Justice Department Attorneys General reinterpreted the laws regarding torture, and just about anything else they could reinterpret for their own purposes. Reinterpretations that are now being examined for their legality. And Bush's Justice Department fired bunches of judges who displeased the Bush administration--a series of firings now under examination for their illegality. The proper interpretation of laws to bring about social justice is one thing, but the interpretation of laws to accomplish evil deeds is another. Interpretation of laws is normal in the courts of ANY administra­tion--it's not something that goes counter to the idea of the rule of law. The important thing is HOW the laws are interpreted.

[jnickj6]

Ignore dentalfloss, or flossophy or whomever it is; that person behind the curtain is simply bitter, jaded and ignorant of all facts. They drink at the fountain of re-education that is FOX media.

You made some fantastic multi-partisan comments in the last 2 paragraphs! Those who get pissed off at you there, are simply "ig'nant."

It comes down to this: "If You are Not Completely APPALLED, You have NOT Paid ATTENTION! "

[Izadorra]

This is a very telling statement;

"And I'm sure some people voted for Barack Obama because of me. I think most people voted for Barack Obama because they decided they wanted him to be in their living room for the next four years explaining policy."

It sounds like he realizes that, we the people, like to have logical explanations. He was always way to uncomfortable answering questions because his answers were just nonsense.

[arkieabroad]

Amen! He was not only ill-prepared, but terribly out of touch with reality. But I also agree that those who supported him and voted for him should be ashamed of themselves. 2000 was a wake up call to the American people...m­oney controls everything. Have you ever wondered who got a big payoff for selecting Bush president in that horrible coup by our Supreme Court? I certainly have. Bush is without a doubt the most rediculous excuse for a president in history. He makes a drunken Grant and possibly retarded Andrew Johnson look like saints. Hoover at least had integrity. Now he wants to say he misstepped­...uh huh...I remember well that stunt on the battleship! And why is it that I have yet to meet a single American person either at home or here in Turkey or any other country where I have visited or lived and worked say that they voted for him? Odd...God Bless the new administration and God Bless our Wonderful USA!

[nox4bs]

forget about the war, Mr Bush, you were unprepared to be president.

[bub26]

Unprepared? I wouldn't trust him to run a lemonade stand

[juzcuz]

that makes two of us.

[ThirdSection]

I'm quite pleasantly surprised that GWB, possibly the worst president in US history, has shown some remorse.

[tiradintim]

If you can call it real remorse. Perhaps he thinks he's doing his duty as a Christian. Mostly he's being his usual flippant self

[bub26]

Christian? Nothing about that man that strikes me as Christian

[bub26]

Possibly?

[JohnSawyer]

Bush is not expressing remorse. Listen again to what he said. He's excusing and lying about his failures as being caused by factors other than himself.

[JohnSawyer]

(continued)

Instead, Bush and his team tried to make US troops "necessary" longer than needed, by hindering the formation of a strong Iraqi democracy and military that could take over their own defense (blaming it solely on Iraqi "inexperience" with democracy, and incompetence), and also by sending in too-few troops in the initial military push into Iraq, thus prolonging the invasion (which made the later surge necessary, which was a late acknowledgement of what intelligent military people had been telling them from the start about the proper number of troops to use).

All this was in order to keep the US's foot in Iraq as long as possible, for purposes of economic plunder, political advantage, trying to "finish up" what Bush Sr. started, etc.--you name it, whatever they could get, but not to promote a strong Iraqi democracy or self-defense. So what Iraq has now, in exchange for all the dead people, all the growth in terrorism, and all the long-lasting ill will towards the US, is an unstable democracy and a not very good defense force, that stands an unfortunately good chance of collapsing not long after the pullout of foreign troops, unless Obama implements some intelligent plans to actually help Iraq.

Bush also said the only time he didn't push for change, was during his re-election campaign. There's a double-entendre if ever there was one.

[bub26]

Bush Administration = The looters of 9/11

[JohnSawyer]

So Bush tries to convince anyone who will listen, that the CIA "intelligence" that stated there were still WMDs in Iraq after 911, was simply "incorrect". Interesting attempt to rewrite history--for anyone who doesn't remember, that intelligence was deliberately fabricated and pushed by Bush and his administration as an excuse to invade Iraq. The Bush administration is also on record as publicly stating several times, prior to the invasion, that they didn't want to invade Iraq due to any connection between Saddam Hussein and 911, since they say they never found a connection, but privately they tried to convince people in positions to make the invasion happen, that there WAS a connection.

Bush is trying to fertilize his "plausible deniability" factor in an attempt to create a supposed historical legacy with himself painted as the good guy, the liberator of a country. He could have indeed liberated Iraq, and limited the expansion of terrorism's response to that attempt, if those had been his goals, but they weren't--from the start of the invasion, Bush's administration tried to prevent the growth of a genuine democracy in Iraq that might have intelligently helped dismantle Saddam's remaining influence (among other things, read the New Yorker articles about the Iraq war, for the past two or three years).

(continued)

[Abenormal]

What does one expect from Vice President Bush and President Dick Cheney?

[icemilkcoffee]

What a sorry loser. Well- now that Bush has issued his apologies, the only people we haven't heard from are the voters who voted Bush into office twice. When are we going to hear a collective apology from the Bush voters?

[Lyvia]

I can't hardly believe that you American people put all your blames to your President.­.. Look at yourselves? Are you the people whom God be pleased with? You are living away from God...You are not anymore the people that used to honor God...and your recent election proves it that only few are real Christians in America...­As for President Bush, well, no one is perfect but for me I have a big respect on a person who knows they are wrong and knows to say "I am sorry"...S­aying "I am sorry " is not a weakness but strength..­.God is still in control of everything.

[icemilkcoffee]

Who appointed you God's spokesperson?

[senorlou]

I must inform you, Santa has taken over for God now. Didn't you get the memo? Just thought you should know, since you decided to bring it up.

[blr599]

you no wat i had to create an account just to reply to you because i am sick of my fellow belivers (i am messianic jewish) thinking that they are God. First of who gave u the right to judge people you arent God. Second name a country in the world that God would be please even Isreal wouldn't please God. And when is the last time a real christian ran our country. And wat makes Obama not a christian because you think he is arab, or because he said he cant say exactly when the point of conception is, and i hope ur aware of wat Sarah Palins preacher was saying about isreal (and yes its worst the obama's).

[winnie47]

"I was unprepared for war, and I'm sorry about the economic crisis"...­..Not exactly. YOU were unprepared to be president, and WE are sorry you were ever elected! (although, God knows I didn't vote for you!)

[AlwaysLiberal]

Passing along an earlier post: For a dist*urbing, but very funny look at Bush, read "George Bush Bloopers & Quotes". It's on http://politicalnewsconnection.com/ , under "US Government News".