Nothing fills me with confidence in my country than a President that cannot even have a speech written correctly for him.  Assuming this portion of his address had been written and revised (more than just once) ahead of time, how does one allow such an unprofessional and ineloquent opening sentence pass?  If this was not a part of the speech that was pre-recorded, then our President indeed requires remedial English language courses.  Refer to my misgivings concerning the lost art of eloquent speech on 4/12 for further elaboration.

Within the forthcoming quotes I discovered varied frightening, unintentionally humorous, and starkly misguided statements given to reporters and to us, the citizens of the United States:

“It’s hard. Freedom is not easy to achieve. I mean, we had a little trouble in our own country achieving freedom.”

“And as to whether or not I made decisions based upon polls, I don’t. I just don’t make decisions that way. I fully understand the consequences of what we’re doing. We’re changing the world, and the world will be better off and America will be more secure as a result of the actions we’re taking.”

“In terms of how long we’ll be there, as long as necessary, and not one day more.”

“He was a threat because he funded suiciders.”

“We knew they were hiding things. A country that hides something is a country that is afraid of getting caught, and that was part of our calculation.” (Extremely interesting coming from this administration.)

“This guy was a torturer, a killer, a maimer. There’s mass graves.”

“I think the hearings will show that the Patriot Act is an important change in the law that will allow the FBI and the CIA to better share information together.”

“I don’t plan on losing my job. I plan on telling the American people that I’ve got a plan to win the war on terror. And I believe they’ll stay with me. They understand the stakes.”

“And we’ve been on a war ever since.”

Besides these errors in oratorical judgment and reason, a few things that President Bush spoke about truly upset me.  This administration has been adamantly against admitting any wrongdoings in relation to their lapses in security that eventually allowed 9/11 to occur.  There were two distinct points in time last night that President Bush was given full court to openly apologize, as Richard Clarke had, to the family members of those who were killed or injured on that day.  Both times the President shirked his responsibility, as he seems wont to say, and moved right along.

This question and non-answer amazed me to the point of jaw dropping:

QUESTION: “Mr. President, why are you and the vice president insisting on appearing together before the 9-11 commission? And, Mr. President, who will we be handing the Iraqi government over to on June 30th?”

BUSH: “We’ll find that out soon. That’s what Mr. Brahimi is doing. He’s figuring out the nature of the entity we’ll be handing sovereignty over.

And, secondly, because the 9-11 commission wants to ask us questions, that’s why we’re meeting. And I look forward to meeting with them and answering their questions.”

In conclusion, last night’s press conference was no fine example of Presidential leadership and was an even worse showing of the amount of disarray this administration is in.  Nary a question was truly answered pointedly and concisely.  With this, I leave you with this final quote:

“I wish you’d have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it.”

Quotes courtesy of a transcript available at The Washington Post.

—–