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

[movecenter]

It's amazing how 8 years of poor governance could bring us to such a low point.

But it's a new day. And I'm ready for our spectacular comeback.

[JonathanDS2U]

I'm waiting for the truth to come out in 50 years when it's too late to have an effect:

Like McCain, who threw the election by nominating Palin (though, as with Mel Brooks' "The Producers", the public failed to act as predicted so it almost worked enough to get McCain elected in spite of himself), Bush was there to make the slow ones among us realize how bad Republicans are, how inept in the face of crises that could destroy us all.

[kenstremsky]

Non voters and voters who did not care about our Constitution and how our governments are supposed to function are responsible for the many problems our country has. Non voters and voters have often done a lousy job for many decades. Keep in mind our national debt was less than 1 trillion dollars on January 20, 1981. Our national debt is now more than 10 trillion dollars. Keep in mind that the last time Congress fulfilled all of its responsibilities dealing with the military which are discussed in Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution was World War 2.

We are a Republic.

Some questions

Are citizens willing to put Republic above party?

Are citizens willing to care about future generations or are they just going to care about the present?

Do citizens realize positive changes often take time to take place especially after things have been done wrong for decades?

If you do not care about the Bill of Rights, why do you think you will keep them?


I added to my profile after 10 pm.

Sincerely,

Ken Stremsky

[cleaningthenationsattic]

The guy is gone right? Do we really need to pile on?

[SeaBlood]

Of course we do! We need to talk about it----it's like group therapy after a traumatic event.

[TLV]

If a criminal walks without being punished, does that make him no longer criminal? If so, why does the FBI continue to hunt people down long after their crime is committed? Can't they just stop "piling on?"

[nunzia]

cleaning- he's gone, but his failures will be with us for generation to come.
And to use your phrase, it's piling on us and our kids and their kids.
We shouldn't be so foolish as to forget.

[BlackWidowPilot]

Hmmmm. Perhaps you should have asked that of Simon Wiesenthal­...

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[SeaBlood]

You're right about one thing: with W's exit, my anger will be largely gone too. And so, I won't have the fervor needed to follow political blogs as avidly as I've done these 8 years. I hope this doesn't turn me into a lazy blob.

[theplaintrutho1]

I suggest you stay with it, as the MSM is getting worse, and so-called progressives are looking to smear Obama, even before He is sworn in.

The scary part for me is, some of these blogs are making big-bucks now from the same corporate people that bought the MSM.

Where do we go from here?

[maxdenn]

The charitable thing might be to say our present prez accomplished all these disasters as a result of innate stupidity. But I'm not sure that's the case. There is perhaps, something else at work here.

[Dave-O]

Why is it only now that the media is reporting this stuff? That's the real question here. Main stream media continues to avoid asking the really tough questions. I hope that we've all learned from the debacle of the last 8 years. This country got what it got because we as a people allowed this man into office for not one term, but for two terms. To a large extent, we have been held hostage by a government by the rich, for the rich. The lack of oversight by the Republican congress and the lack of balls even from Democrats once they regained a majority is disturbing. Hopefully, President Obama will restore trust to the process of governance. He hopefully will not fall victim to the obstructionist tactics of the Republican minority who are already beginning to draw lines in the sand. I hope he has the balls to stand up to the BS and to take a stand for what is right for America, not for the special interests. We shall see...

[theplaintrutho1]

Most of us still don't get it.
Obama, now has to play by the rules laid-out before him. Why do you think he met with Right-Wing media-obst­ructionist like Kristol? (spelling?)
Just to try and get things close to even-steven, he will have to play their game, because they own us all, under $0.5 million.
How many of your friends can boast that tally-Madoff?
The rest of us are as dumb-as-a-­bag-of-roc­ks, going off in all different directions based upon our own personal lives and experiences, while never seeing the big-picture. Just a matter of time, Whites hating Blacks, progressives vs liberals, Oleberman & Maddow vs who knows? (somehow they have become against Obama not even sworn in yet, notice?)

Money talks and BS walks.

These people buy the Left, as easily as they've purchased the right. Just tell you what you want to hear. Remember Bill Clinton?

[pjburke]

Oh, Nora..... you are soooo much more tolerant of journalism's sycophantic venality than I can be!

[nunzia]

"sycophantic venality" sum up those talking heads quite nicely.
Thanks.

[roselaw]

Why anyone thought Bush would be a good president is beyond understanding:

On October 19, 2000, Molly Ivins tried to warn us: "I have tried repeatedly to explain to non-Texans just how weak an office the governorship of Texas is, but even if Bush suffers from the illusion that he has a powerful job, he must know he doesn't work at it by anyone's measure. The New York Times has just discovered, with an air of great wonder, that Bush doesn't even work 9 to 5 and that he knocks off work every day for a couple of hours to jog and play video games."

And on November 5th: "I'm sorry — the man is inadequate. You cannot slide through life on your daddy's name, turning in a poor performance in school and the military, and a distinctly questionable performance in the business world, loaf through a few years in baseball trading Sammy Sosa and then tell outrageous lies about your part-time performance in a powerless job. This is silly.

One of the few truly eerie things about W. is his inability to admit that he did it all on luck. Lots of people are born lucky in life, but they're not born blind to that fact. No one is asking him to feel guilty about it; awareness would suffice.

I've never found Bush ill-intentioned — just oblivious.­"

[in4success]

"mysteries that have remained unsolved in spite of the skills of hundreds of gifted journalists who have attempted to uncover them?"

really? you mean "journalists" like david (mc rove backup dancer) gregory? or how about tom (i have GOP fundraisers at my house and am soooo friggin' petty and biased that i actually attacked pres elect barack obama FOR SMOKING @the white house) brokaw? no... wait... how about that brilliant and ethical american journalistic hero judith (i like scooter-poot's sexy poetry and bestiality porn so much i'll help him sell the mushroom cloud myth so his boss can illegally invade and occupy a sovereign nation for war profiteering) miller?

are those the "gifted" journalists you're talking about? because you seem to be overlooking the ones WHO DID UNCOVER AND CONNECT THE DOTS IN NUMEROUS EXPOSES here.

glenn greenwald
matt taibbi
kieth olbermann
john stewart
stephen colbert
frank rich
john amato
countless others (to name but a few).

sounds to me like you're on your own "revisionist" tour just like bush/cheney/rove.

give us a break. we know what the hell happened --- pretending we don't -- or couldn't isn't going to get ANY of us off the hook.

[theplaintrutho1]

Thanks!

[lbhart]

I feel sorry for Texas.

[burnsknight]

You're the only one that does

[theplaintrutho1]

I don't understand, why?

[ivoteforsmartpeople]

I never saw ANY journalist actually GO AFTER the answers to those questions!

Why didn't someone counter "I kept you safe for X years" (for the last 6 years!) with "But you were so intent on discrediti­ng/denying everything Clinton touched you IGNORED warnings about OBL's terrorist activities!" EVERY TIME Bush would say those lies and all the others???

Journalists all just rolled over and took whatever GWB chose to give them in response to mediocre and impotent questionin­g...or they spread his lies and kissed his behind since day 1! (Faux News)

Journalism USED TO BE about reporting the TRUTH without Commentary! No more!

[theplaintrutho1]

You ever seen the movie "27 dresses" ? Like about hundreds of others, the writer says to his editor, "so we are about making money now?" meaning, opposed to the truth.

Yeah, that's just a movie. When, oh God, when will we wake-up as a people? With all the history books around us, now available on the Internet for free, will we READ to expand our knowledge of truth and history?

We will never do that. Why? Because we are Americans, our feelings and ideology are more important than fact.
When our White brethren was so busy worrying about our African-American brethren coming to get us. (common-enemy) They were very busy setting-up what most nations have had to endure.
They have worked around our vague constitution while STACKING the USSC in their favor.
Now don't think that the GOP ONLY, is the problem, as our Dem-Leaders give-away our money, and was (in an earlier period of the twentieth-century) the head of the the KKK.

We are bought and sold as a people, whites thinking they are better than all other minorities, while believing, this stuff can't happen to us, we're white.

Now minorities and other countries laugh at us, as our Madoff and the rest has been stolen, while we think we are better than the rest.

The media? They are no different than we are, MONEY-TALKS.

[Checquoline]

Goodby George, good riddance and don't let the door hit you.......­........

[gun]

said as well as anyone...N­ora, and we all have our own explanations of what happened

Now think of this gang of criminals leaving town, their pockets bulging as the country burns

Yesterday, they were big men, but boy look at them now.

They took America down, but they had plenty of help from a majority of stupid Americans who worshipped false idols, and it reminds me of what Hud's daddy said:

"Little by little the look of the country changes because of the men we admire."

Time for a change for the better, eh?

[maxdenn]

And Rove and Karen Hughes are busy attempting to revise history. Tell a lie(s) enough times and the hope is it will become "truth". Same old, same ol'.