It Ought To Be A Word

It's true what he said: we misunderestimated him.

George Bush came into his presidency with a huge wave of goodwill. Not from me, but from the others. An amazing number of people who should have known better thought of him as a charming guy whose intellectual limitations would somehow be as benign as Ronald Reagan's, whose promise of a fairly passive presidency would be as survivable as Dwight Eisenhower's. So he couldn't seem to get a sentence out straight, so what? And as for his religious rigidity, that was simply his way of dealing with an alcohol problem without the sloppy conventions of AA.

He was misunderestimated in every way. It was hard to imagine that this feckless leader could do so much damage. But even as the worst emerged, he was given the benefit of the doubt because of the ongoing mysteries of his administration -- mysteries that have remained unsolved in spite of the skills of hundreds of gifted journalists who have attempted to uncover them:

• Who exactly was running the country these last eight years?
• What did the President know, if anything, and when did he know it, if ever?
• Was he capable in any way of even one sleepless night, much less the ongoing insomnia that any sentient person would suffer after so many wrong decisions and pointless deaths?
• Did he mispronounce the word "nuclear" 1) on purpose, in order to make himself seem folksy 2) because he actually thought he was pronouncing it correctly or 3) just to piss us off?

The exit appearances that Bush has made in recent weeks will be something future presidents will refer to as often as Lincoln's Second Inaugural, although for different reasons. Here's what he said:

• We did the best we could under the circumstances.
• It's not easy being President.
• It wasn't completely my fault.
• Everyone makes mistakes.
• I kept America safe, except for this one time.
• After that one time I worked really really hard almost every day and had to read a lot of stuff about foreign countries.

This is Bush's legacy -- a stunning series of alibis. This is what he will crawl off to Texas with, hoping that it will fool a publisher into giving him a substantial book advance and contributors into giving him money for a library full of pilfered papers.

On Monday, we will have to get used to a different thing entirely, a president who's in the loop, who reads history, who speaks decent English. He will rob of us of something -- of the burning anger that has sustained us the last eight years, and that will take some adjusting to. But we're up for it; after all these years in the dark, we're ready for a little overestimation. Which is, unlike misunderestimation, an actual word. But come to think of it, misunderestimation ought to be a word. I certainly know what it means.

Comments

[AbrahamSadegh]

There is no word that can describe the agonies I have gone through witnessing the damage that George W. Bush and "the best and the brightest" surrounding him have done to our nation and to the world.

There is no word that can describe the excruciating spiritual pain resulting from the legacy of this man achieving the highest position in our nation and the world, a position of power that can be a blessing to humanity and our planet, who is leaving a trail of tears, blood, and destruction behind.

There is no word than can describe the agony of seeing this creature go to lead a comfortable undeserving life instead of being draged to a place to experience a sample of pain physical and spiritual damage he brought upon human beings whose possible crimes will never match the crimes of this "misunderstimated" man himself has committed during eight years that seem to have been an eternity.

[Chuckwheat]

Two words: delusional, waste.

[michiganfan]

two more (hopefully):

convicted criminals

[AbrahamSadegh]

Somehow the last section of post was not posted. So here is the continuation:

It does not matter how powerful a "decider" is, it - he/she - would not be able to impact the world without accomplices. The closer, the more powerful and influential its associates, the more responsible they would be for what the "decider" can achieve. This is true about not only in regard to a dictator but a saintly leader as well. There is little that one individual can do without the help of others from all walks of life.

In Bush's case, one incredible example is Condoleezza Rice as a prominent educator, as an expert in world affairs, as a musician usually representing human being with greater sensitivity towards life, as a close family friend, as the closest advisor to the President, and mind bogglingly as an African-American, bears a great responsibility for the evils committed for nearly a decade.

I would deliver Bush and the entire "rat pack" to the International Court of Justice to be tried for crimes against humanity. That would perhaps wash some of the stain from the soul of our nation for letting this Administration to get away with so many misdeeds.

And may God bless the likes of Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio for his courage and vision in continuously trying his best to stop the Bush Administration in its track and unfortunately not being able to do to lack of support in Congress.

[Puzzles]

Abraham, you have described my thoughts succinctly. However, what Bush et al have done is prove that the dream of "America" is false. The illusion of equality and the quest for justice etc is purely a facade. We are as every country before us that has had evil leaders and oppressing classes. The America we believed in would punish these people. But they will not be punished, because that America was an illusion played to us as a promotional video is. We will see all thes people golfing and making speeches while less connected are jailed for selling pot or cashing a bad check.

The truth is that WE are to blame for this. WE did not question, WE accepted the filth perpetrated in our name with barely a whimper. WE dumbed ourselves down to save money, and to make money. WE felt that as long as our consuming way of life was not fiddled with we, were #1--happy in our ignorance. Enron, Worldcom, AIG etc. 99% of the population would have stepped into the shoes of any of those company's' leaders to make those obscene incomes. Remember "greed is good". WE believe that.

George Bush has shown thinking Americans and the World that we are just another mediocre country. There is no going back. No one, not even an articulate Obama can change the fact that WE made and kept this man as President for almost a decade! HE reflects who we are!

[BannedInBoston]

"Did he mispronounce the word "nuclear" 1) on purpose, in order to make himself seem folksy 2) because he actually thought he was pronouncing it correctly or 3) just to piss us off?"

Or 4) as part of a Texas accent as phony as his Texas ranch?

4)

[Gidster]

He is "Uncomfortable around horses and cows. There are none on his "Ranch"

[JanMcGirk]

When I reported on Bush's first foreign trip (the Tex-Mex summit held at San Cristobal, Mexico, at the working broccoli and ostrich rancho owned by then-Mexican president Vicente Fox), the Secret Service told the foreign press not to expect Dubya to appear in the saddle. Bush didn't have the equestrian skills, and he would be at risk of falling if the horse startled. It was a ruse to appear Reaganesque, same as the brush-clearing. Fox wrote later that he could tell Bush, "the cockiest guy he ever met" was afraid of horses and dismissed him as a "windshield cowboy" who spoke "grade-school Spanish". The Mexicans presented him with two pairs of cowboy boots so he could kick some a**

News that American war planes had bombed five Iraqi military sites around Baghdad threatened to overshadow Mr. Bush's first foray as chief executive, while he touted a policy that put "our hemisphere" first.

[burnsknight]

He was a no-show that day in grammar class.

[rockyb26]

I'm from Texas and I pronounce it correctly. Coincidentally, Sarah Palin pronounces it nukular as well so i doubt it's regional.

[kcsmom]

The US going into Iraq after 9/11 made as much sense as invading Zimbabwe.

No one held Bush or the administration accountable. And, I am so sick of hearing he kept us safe.

America, let's not forget , that 9/11 happened on THEIR watch. Bush and Condi ignored the intelligence before 9/11, then Bush tried to squelch any investigation. It was only after four widows insisted, that any 9/11 commission got formed. Afterwards, Bush tried to take credit saying it was a good thing.

Have we forgotten his initial reaction in the children's classroom? Wasn't it Cheney that started taking measures before consulting Bush?
Yet, the press thought Bush was great at ground zero.

Has the media ever asked how much $ Cheney made on this war? Why didn't the media thoroughly review the movie "The Truth About the War in Iraq" when it was first came out, a year or so BEFORE the second election?

Do they ever talk about how many innocent Iraqi were killed in this war? Do they ever discuss how when a 12 yr old sees his parents killed he's more likely to grow up to be another terrorist?

Can anyone count to a trillion?

The anger won't ever be gone for many families of dead and wounded soldiers.

Please...g­oodbye to all of them and good riddance. I can think of many singular words for the Bush administration - none of which are printable, so I'll go with- regrettable.

[IllinoisTexan43]

I remember a few years ago the Dallas Morning News had a 3 part series on the abuses that Halliburton was heaping on our service members and their no-bid connections that went straight to the top. I remember the first part being printed and then... nothing else. I do believe the rest of the expose was pulled. Face it, Cheney is teflon. We won't be able to touch him with a 100 ft. pole.

[kamau006]

Bush to America: "We've kept you safe since the last time we didn't!!"

[totalliberal]

I always wondered why Bob Woodward spoke so slowly and haltingly during interviews. Now I know. After spending all those years with Bush and not getting just how dumb he was he proved that Carl Bernstein was the brains behind Watergate.

[SSF]

There is a word that best describes the Bush Presidency: Cancerous.

[nunzia]

Most of the so-called journalists in this country fell all over each other to kiss the feet of W's adminstration. Maybe you don't remember, but I do.
I remember all the giddy blather about how "sexy" and savvy and tough "Rummy" was. Why, he was ever so clever in handling nosy questions! Wasn't it just so witty how he said, "stuff happens"! Wasn't he just so cool and dismissive. Why, he was a wrestler a zillion years ago, y'know. How smart and polished and talented Condi was. How religious and "christian" and down home W was. All the cute (never demeaning) nicknames he had for the members of the White House press corp. How good it was going to be finally having " grown ups" back in charge again. How W would dignify, not degrade, the oval office.
How good ol' boy W had never been to any other country buy Mexico, but hey, he had surrounded himself with experienced pros. Daddy's pals.

That's the b.s. that the so-called journalists told us over and over again - for years.
No, I beg to differ. Hundreds of journalists did NOT do all that much to question this adminstration.
Those who later joined the band wagon, after it all started to fall apart so much that even the average American slacker, couch potato, reality-sh­ow-watchin­g, beer-swilling, junk-eating, angel-believing, credit-spending, know-nothing nimrob began to smell the decay and deception and death and destruction.

[Gidster]

Remember those that did had their patriotism and loyalty questioned and in a few cases lost their White House access.

The Republicans were in full attack trying to bring about Rove's "Permanent Republican Majority" any individual, any paper, any magazine that printed dissent was ridiculed threatened and boycotted by Ditto heads and rabid jingoists. Some reporters were put on the No Fly List, some were threatened with "Homeland Security". This is how fascism begins. We got lucky and nipped it before it could become permanent!

[gorgol]

"Amen" to all of it.

[rockyb26]

i agree 100%. they thought his stupidity was cute and charming, and did everything they could to make the american public agree with them.

[mommyatty]

Now that is a great editorial. I always love you, Nora, but you were pissed off in this one and that's a good thing. Few people with your credentials dare say these things, you know.

[Jeffreygeez]

Great editorial except for the part about the gifted journalists. They knew he was lying about the reaons for going into Iraq, or they should have if they were so gifted.

At one point he basically said this // I just know they, meaning Iraq have weapons of mass destruction! As if he was the father of the country and knew what was best because of his position, experience and superior intuition? He just knew it!!

No one called him on this. No one. They all back off when push comes to shove.

[Synoia]

I doubt the buring anger has gone.

Just look at the demands for war crimes investigations.

Now that's righteous anger, properly focused on criminal behaviour.

Oops sorry, alleged criminal behaviour.

[juliewolves]

"mysteries that have remained unsolved in spite of the skills of hundreds of gifted journalists who have attempted to uncover them"
What gifted journalists and when? They certainly weren't in the White House Press Corps, excepting Helen Thomas.

[indc]

Exactly right, Seymour Hersh and Helen Thomas from the mainstream media, and several from web media, but the rest of the MSM was complicit, made excuses, buried its head, and made sure they were invited to the right parties with good eats.... no sense being a reporter, doing one's job and risk missing out on the good stuff.

[RepugsOut08]

I was posting on an AOL message board in the weeks leading up to the Iraq invasion, and there were countless average people like myself predicting exactly what would and did happen as a consequence of the invasion.
We knew because we bothered to read about the actual situation, both politically and religious, in Iraq. I just couldn't believe the media was letting Bush get away with it. Since then, I've lost all respect for the MSM. Iraq was easy to predict. Our press has gone from watchdog to lapdog.

[L3ftofC3nter]

We "misunderestimated" him alright. Bush is no dummy. For the last 8 years this man has put policies into place that have brought this country to its knees. And now he's walking away with a stack of money.

[theplaintrutho1]

"...Bush is no dummy."

As in he is smart?
You can be the worlds best dummy and still get rich when you have the power of the USSC, the AG office and all it's attorneys willing to comply, a majority in senate, congress, MSM, mood/spirit of the people, armed-forces, majority of states, their national-guardsmen & militia, Black-Water and most law-enforc­ement-agen­cies they trained, religious backing urning for some of the non-taxable money give-away, corporations and the super-rich that own them, and a bunch of crazies willing to run the Dixie-Chic's and any other opposition out of the country.

Howdy-Doody could have been POTUS and been successful after they eliminated all other checks and balances that only the people of NYC took to the streets to try and stop, while the rest of us were busy wrapping our homes with duct tape and foil.

[Thaigold]

Nora...

The simple truth is; this guy was soooo Middle America it would have been impossible for him NOT TO HAVE BEEN ELECTED.

[kenny453]

I never miss an opportunity to correct the mistaken impression that George Bush was Elected. He was APPOINTED, by the Supreme Court in 2000, after Jeb & Katherine purged the Florida Voter rolls of nearly 80,000 mostly black, mostly democratic, voters. In 2004, similar methods were used in Ohio, as well as loooong lines, and faulty paperless touch screen vote flipping machines, tampered with by personell from the company supplying them (Read "What Went Wrong In Ohio" ) along with the actual registration cards of democratic voters ending up in the trash!
This man was NEVER ELECTED. He never obeyed any of our laws. He never uttered a word of truth except by accident.
Of course the republicans correctly judged that the vast majority of Americans were apathetic enough, uneducated enough, and cowardly enough to tolerate a coup taking place right in front of them without a peep, and this sheepishness held through a highly suspicious terrorist attack that occured after Bush was warned about it and took no action, one war that failed early on to achieve it's stated objective, a second one begun under false pretenses and maintained for no good reason and against the wishes of the voters, the treasonous exposure of a CIA NOC, torture, wiretapping, Katrina, and all the rest.
What happened to the people of this country?

[indc]

Except of course the fact that he was never elected...­.two elections, two thefts...

[Mugzi]

You are so wrong...th­ere were plenty of people against gw from the start. Unfortunately, King jeb gave 2000 to his brother through the court and 2004 was given to gw by Ken Blackwell in Ohio with the rigged Diebold voting machines. No, many citizens saw gw for what he was and is...

[theplaintrutho1]

I don't think you like the 27% that still like him, know anything about him.

"soooo Middle America."?­??

George Walker Bush forty-third and current President, forty-sixth Governor of Texas. Bush is the eldest son of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Barbara Bush. After graduating from Yale University, Bush worked in his family's oil businesses.
...co-owne­d the Texas Rangers baseball team before defeating Ann Richards to become Governor of Texas in 1994. In a close and CONTRAVERSIAL election, elected president in 2000, receiving a majority of the electoral votes, but losing the popular vote.
Bush, as a child, was not accepted for admission by St. John's School in Houston, Texas, a prestigious private school. Instead, he attended The Kinkaid School, the private school from which St. John's had broken away, attended Phillips Academy, an all-boys private high school in Andover, Massachusetts, attended Yale University, became a member of the secretive Skull and Bones society.
Bush had multiple accounts of alcohol abuse, he was arrested near his family's summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine for driving under the influence. He pleaded guilty, was fined $150 and had his Maine driver's license suspended until 1978.

Now I'm not sure of what you consider "Middle America" but GWB is the farthest from my conception. Or, maybe you and the 27%, like McCain believe $5-million-bucks is the starting point.

[longislandlol]

They're groomin the grandson for another one of their stunners

[scott63]

Bush came in with a huge wave of goodwill? Please, the cries of stolen elections, voter suppression, racism, and on and on began on day one of the Bush administrtion and have never let up, I can only hope that the rightwing nuts you hate/fear so much show the new President the same respect and benifit of any doubt that the left has always showed Bush.

[concerned one]

As I recall Bush had a 90% approval rating after 9/11.

NINETY PERCENT

It was his to lose so blaming the left is a little unfair. All of these crisis happened on his watch. Who else shall we blame?

[hmargret]

Nora, you are too nice about GWB.

but I agree with what's said here, he robbed us all. we are stuck with that massive debt, while the country is on the verge of collapse. GWB accomplished what the GOP intended : the destruction of the middle class, of which I am one. I am ruined financiall­y....and 56. but hey, he didn't know the war would go that way......l­et's put him on trial. water-boarding is torture.