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

[NABNYC]

I've only seen bits and pieces of the Bush-Cheney farewell tour (luckily) but two words came to mind about Bush's speech: Dry Drunk. It's everybody else's fault, pour me another.

And then started thinking: "Well, that's his excuse. What's ours?"

We have spent 8 years with Bush and Cheney as national leaders. We have allowed them to use the entire U.S. treasury and military to bully, murder, bomb, rape, pillage, and loot many nations of the world, while terrorizing and intimidating the others, demeaning those who stood against their brutish ways by calling them "old Europe," and suggesting that civil nations that oppose war are sissies, should be ridiculed or possibly destroyed.

Yet I already hear people with national voices arguing that we should let bygones be bygones, so what if they tortured, let's move on. As if we were talking about a spat, or a misunderstanding, or a missed phone call, instead of talking about the intentional mass murder of human beings. And the intentional theft of the retirement and savings, and jobs, and future, and college accounts for many Americans.

So how do we move towards a national cure? How do we recover? We don't solve the 8 years of waging war on others simply by inaugurating a new president, even if he is cute and smart and everyone likes him. Let's look at the standard 12 steps and see if they provide any national guidance for the citizens. More at http://NABNYC.blogspot.com

[opines]

The country continues to underestimate GWB. He was frontman for the largest raid in history of the U.S. Treasury. It appears that it will be a clean getaway.

So clean, we don't know where the trillions went, who was mastermind, and who most of the perps were. And the C student with smirk walks away from the heist unscathed.

Try setting out to do that one if you think it's easy.

Bernie Madoff, is small potatoes next to GWB. That evil 'genius' is going to jail while the C student walks.

Indeed, we have 'misunderestimated' the frat boy.

[BannedInBoston]

An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king,
Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow
Through public scorn--mud from a muddy spring,
Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know,
But leech-like to their fainting country cling,
Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow,
A people starved and stabbed in the untilled field,
An army, which liberticide and prey
Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield,
Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay,
Religion Christless, Godless--a book sealed,
A Senate--Time's worst statute unrepealed,
Are graves, from which a glorious Phantom may
Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day.

Percy Bysshe Shelly, "England in 1819"

[BannedInBoston]

That should be "Shelley" (typo not bad spelling..­..)

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

Love the Bysshe bard.

[PlaceboStudman]

GWB's legacy--He IS his father's son after all

End of story

[BannedInBoston]

To me, "misunderestimated" means that we did a bad job of underestimating Bush. We didn't underestimate him enough!

[goodgravy]

he's gone. it feels go to let it go.

[dutchgirl55]

Well, there's a Freudian slip for you. You're so ready to see him go, you typed it twice. LOL (Me, too.)

[Crowhaul]

The lesson that America should learn from this is that for the GOP Bush typifies exactly how a president should be: Not too educated, essentially hands-off, something of a gunslinger, and a vehicle through which they can get what they want. The GOP doesn't seek to elect an individual as do we; rather, they elect a vessel (as evidenced by McCain & Palin). It's downright scary.

[BannedInBoston]

Good point. Bush, Cheney, Palin, Jindal, McCain (AND Giuliani, Thompson, Romney, Huckabee too) -- These are the kinds of politicians Republicans actually LOOK for and enthuse about. Kind of tells you something, doesn't it?

[mlaiuppa]

And don't forget the purpose: to move money from public hands into privates hands....t­heirs.

[TXfemmom]

I kept telling everyone during the primary and then the general election of 2000 that Bush was not exactly the brightest light in the candelabra as Governor of Texas, which with the exception of Ann, has had a succession of not so bright Governors in the last twenty five years.

Then, I heard him lie about his record over and over during the debates and not a single so-called jouralist called him on it. One of those lies was about the Children's Health Care Bill. Bush fought that bill tooth and toenail, and fought to keep Texas from spending money which it had on the program when we had the highest proportion of uninsured children in the country. The state would get back something like $8 for every $1 they sent to the Feds in matching funds, and Bush fought and fought o keep the amount Texas sent to Washington. When they finally compromised and met halfway between what he wanted and what the visionaries wanted, he went down onto the floor of the Legislature, when he had never, ever been there before, and shook hands and did his stupid routine, until he came to the legislator which had led the opposition to his position. He smiled for the cameras with him, and then proceeded to tell him that he was going to get him for having fought for this, and then he took credit for it during the debates. Not one journalist ever confronted him with the truth.

[Lanterna2008]

I also am ashamed. And I'm afraid time will only clarify the tremendous mistake our country made in 2000. Bush has all along been a prick to his core. He always was! It was all there for the press to follow up. Instead, they turned it into a virtue, a clear though rough display of "independe­nce." How wrong they were. Our journalists are playing by rules long since useful. Just as the GOP has advanced in its tactics, Journalism in the US should have kept lock step, traded blow for blow with this rotten political machine. My God has no one a memory of the Fourth Estate? The Fourth Estate, of course, Implies that the people are king, that there is an army of truthsayers perpetually ready to take it to the hills. They need to ride again.

[rabiddog6708]

The media fell in line with Bu$h after 911 and really didn't come around until Iraq occupation really turned bad.....an­d then Katrina forced them from their slumber.

[lucylou]

problem is, there are just as many angry people right now with our President-To-Be precisely for the gifts he brings to office (just ask Sarah Palin)...

[aFlyoverPerson]

Unfortunately you're right. These are many of the same people that misoverestimated B u sh.

[robotfog]

I don't see how the man could even have been entered in a national primary of any kind. Shouldn't there be some series of exams a person has to go through to show they are at least *possibly* capable of such a job?

I think a parallel might be that even as the incompetent Bush was accepted as president, incompetent CEOs were the trend for some seriously large businesses. Like no one really cared about anything at all anymore.

[hrholmes]

Great post Nora. You do wander off target with a misoverestimation with a whopper of 'hundreds of gifted journalists'. Maybe a few dozen and even fewer investigative ones at that. Those that ever did ask a tough question were denied all access and demoted or fired just like any whistleblower in any government or corporate environment. Even during the campaign the TV teleprompter readers like Brian Williams and all CNN and FOX propagandists just kept driveling out what was written for them to read to us. The one that redeemed herself the most was Katie Couric. She kept a straight face throughout Palins jabberings and never cracked a smile at the woman's lame outlooks or stupidity. She unfortunatley would never ask an interviewee questions about blatant lies nor ever point out the lies in a closing segment. Journalists are now recorders, not reporters. Imagine Palin in front of Huntley, Brinkley or Cronkite. Get the difference?

[oldjerseygirl]

But, the telling moment(s) came during the interview with Charles Gibson: " In what way, Charlie?".­....and the double-take Gibson did after that remark.... and how he had to give a definition of the Bush Doctrine to little Miss Moose-Munc­h......tha­t was the beginning of the huge crack in the GOP foundation. At least, that's how I saw it. Katie's interview was just another crowbar that made that crack wider to enable even more people to see the light.

[CrimeaRiver]

Brilliant post!

But I gave up long ago trying to find logic or reason in the wreckless criminality and stunning disregard of our country's founding principles by Bush&Co. They are what happen when self-entitled bullies and morons grow up and sell out their country. Don't let the door/shoe hit you on the way out.

I think GWB will make better money as a bobble-head than a ghosted-for "memoirist­."

As for the responsibility of our eight-year nightmare falling to the mainstream press: I'm not sure I quite agree, but they're getting theirs anyway.

[taricaziz]

Too bad Scalia isn't going with Bush.

[YL]

In light of kudos given to GW by the media on his performance right after 9/11, I am incensed that the media and the public could have allowed the Bush administration get off so easily in LETTING 9/11 happen. The first world trade bombing happened less than 2 months after Bill Clinton took office and for the rest of his tenure there were no follow-up of terrorists attack on the US mainland. His administration did not blame Bush Sr. nor bragged about their security record as Bushies do incessantly. Despite briefing by Bill Clinton and staff about the danger of al Qaeda, 5 months of repeated intel warnings since April of 2001, and urgent exhortations by Richard Clarke, not to mention the 8/6/01 PDB spelling out practically in detail how the terrorists would attack the US mainland, Bush did nothing. During Clinton's time, whenever there were intel buzzes, a daily principals meeting would be held in the White House where they would be asked to encourage suspicious movements detected on the ground to float upwards in their respective departments and bring in for discussion in the next session so that security measures could be mapped out and disseminated. Had the Bush administration kept this routine, the airports throughout the states would have been alerted and the al Qaeda agents mostly likely would have been detained. Why have you journalists not clamoured on this point?

[IllinoisTexan43]

Dare you to post this over on Red State;-)