Ex-aides say Bush never recovered from Katrina

WASHINGTON (AP) - Hurricane Katrina not only pulverized the Gulf Coast in 2005, it knocked the bully pulpit out from under President George W. Bush, according to two former advisers who spoke candidly about the political impact of the government’s poor handling of the natural disaster.

“Katrina to me was the tipping point,” said Matthew Dowd, Bush’s pollster and chief strategist for the 2004 presidential campaign. “The president broke his bond with the public. Once that bond was broken, he no longer had the capacity to talk to the American public. State of the Union addresses? It didn’t matter. Legislative initiatives? It didn’t matter. P.R.? It didn’t matter. Travel? It didn’t matter.”

Dan Bartlett, former White House communications director and later counselor to the president, said: “Politically, it was the final nail in the coffin.”

Their comments are a part of an oral history of the Bush White House that Vanity Fair magazine compiled for its February issue, which hits newsstands in New York and Los Angeles on Wednesday, and nationally on Jan. 6. Vanity Fair published comments by current and former government officials, foreign ministers, campaign strategists and numerous others on topics that included Iraq, the anthrax attacks, the economy and immigration.

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Ex-aides say Bush never recovered from Katrina

I really don’t have anything to add to this story other than to express my belief that it’s probably pretty accurate. No individual comes to the presidency fully prepared and ready to assume the mantle all on their own. No person!

The fact that the Bush administration was going downhill after Katrina is fairly obvious. The war in Iraq wasn’t going well. The people of the *Chocolate City* were begging for more and sitting on their asses expecting the federal government to do it ALL for them. The Louisiana Army National Guard, the 256th BCT, went to Iraq as an armored unit, they came back as light infantry. The reason being, the DoD didn’t have the equipment to continue the prosecution of the war in Iraq.

The 256th, like all units, took their equipment to Iraq, and the DoD kept it for others to use, simply because they had no more in the federal stockpile to replace it! And even now, several years after the 256th was deployed to Iraq, they are still a Light Infantry unit, set to be redeployed to Iraq in a year or so.

I’m not going to use this piece to bash Bush, but I am going to say this: I did NOT support George W. Bush when he was elected the 1st time. I didn’t support Algore either, I was forced to do the thing I hate the most, I had to accept the lesser of 2 evils. I was pretty well *cold* on Bush until 9-11 occurred, at that point, some good old fashioned patriotism kicked in and I did my very best to get behind the guy, he was, after all, the President.

When Bush took the American military into Afghanistan I was forced to rethink my positions again. I was in full support of Bush and was beginning to believe that I had been much too harsh on the man and that perhaps there was a lot more to the man than ANY of us had seen.

Then he took us to Iraq. That was when I knew that my 1st impression had been correct. I was one of those folks that knew Iraq didn’t present the threats we were told it did. I knew that Saddam wasn’t directly responsible for 9-11, but I saw that Bush was seriously determined to have his way!

When the 2nd election came along I still felt that I was voting the lesser of the evils by voting for Bush over Kerry, but to be totally honest with you, I would have voted for ANYONE over that pompous ass John Kerry.

By standing up for MY beliefs this time, and by not voting for John McCain, I personally feel much better about myself. I can look myself in the eye and like the guy I see in the mirror. I also rest assured in knowing that those of us that voted a 3rd party candidate were such a minority that we in no way influenced Obama winning the 2008 election.

Is George W. Bush evil? I don’t think so, not EVIL. I think he was even more unprepared for the presidency than anyone thought. I believe he didn’t grow with the job and continued to act on HIS wishes and not on those of We, The People. History can judge him any way they like, but my biggest fear is that history will be obliterated in the coming catastrophe that this nation is sure to face. Bush may not be the worst president in history once it all plays out, history may be a lot more kind to him than I am, but the final vote isn’t in yet.

What I would give to be able to get a glimpse of this nation 200 years into the future!

Bush: Iraq war is not over, more work ahead

BAGHDAD (AP) - On an Iraq trip shrouded in secrecy and marred by dissent, President George W. Bush on Sunday hailed progress in the war that defines his presidency and got a size-10 reminder of his unpopularity when a man hurled two shoes at him during a news conference.

“This is the end!” shouted the protester, later identified as Muntadar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia television, an Iraqi-owned station based in Cairo, Egypt.

Bush ducked both shoes as they whizzed past his head and landed with a thud against the wall behind him.

“All I can report,” Bush joked later, “is a size 10.”

The U.S. president visited the Iraqi capital just 37 days before he hands the war off to President-elect Barack Obama, who has pledged to end it. The president wanted to highlight a drop in violence in a nation still riven by ethnic strife and to celebrate a recent U.S.-Iraq security agreement, which calls for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.

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Bush: Iraq war is not over, more work ahead

Well damn, he missed. Maybe, just maybe, IF he had hit Pres. Numbnutz upside the head it may have knocked some sense into him. Too late to do any real good actually, but it IS a hope!

Of course Bush would think there is ‘more work ahead’, there are still millions of Americans that have jobs, and there are still BILLIONS of tax dollars out there that haven’t been wasted on the nation of Iraq and the most ungrateful bunch of bastards to ever walk the face of the earth! And what the hell, we still have troops that haven’t been killed or maimed for said ungrateful bastards!

I have never made ANY secret of my disagreement and anger at the way we were taken into Iraq, the way we went in with a massive invasion and have spent the last 6 years wasting American lives and dollars. I have always made it very plain that in MY opinion, all we needed was 3 very well placed *A* Teams and a few surgical air strikes. Iraq would be none the worse for wear and we would be untold hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars ahead. Not to mention the over 4,200 U.S service men and women that would quite likely still be alive.

Your legacy has been written Mr. Bush, and history, many years from now, may look more kindly on you, but approximately 70%, +/-, of the American people today think you are a MORON!

In many ways, the unannounced trip was a victory lap without a clear victory.

I vehemently disagree with this ridiculous statement from the AP. We HAD a CLEAR victory in Iraq. We defeated the Republican Guard, Saddam’s army. And it was done in short order and fine fashion! Saddam was removed from power and his evil spawns were killed by American troops. THAT is victory. That was what we went to Iraq for, to KILL Saddam, that was pretty much it as far as I am concerned. WMDs were a joke. Iraq as a threat to the continental USA was a joke. Iraq and ANY danger they posed to the USA was nothing more than a Homeland Security issue! Bush blew the VICTORY!

The VICTORY that our troops garnered, the VICTORY that our troops fought and died for, was squandered by the mismanagement of Iraq and the prosecution of the war. That mismanagement done and caused by the micromanagement of the Bush administration itself!

I will in NO WAY denigrate our troops for the fine job they did and the sacrifices they made. The MSM, and AP in particular, would be well served to take that same view on VICTORY, what it really is and WHO was responsible for anything less.