Bush Mocks Presidents Who Feel Self-Pity
Email"The phrase ‘burdens of the office’ is overstated," President Bush said today at his 47th and final presser.
"You know, it’s kind of like, ‘Why me?’" he said, mimicking someone in whiney self-pity. "’Oh, the burdens,’ you know. ‘Why did the financial collapse have to happen on my watch?’
"It’s just — it’s pathetic, isn’t it, self-pity," he said. "I tell people that, you know, some days happy, some days not so happy, every day has been joyous. And people, they say, I just don’t believe it to be the case. Well, it is the case. Even in the darkest moments of Iraq, you know, there was — and every day when I was reading the reports about soldiers losing their lives, no question there was a lot of emotion, but also there was times where we could be light-hearted and support each other."
– jpt
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I believe we will, one day, look back at George W. Bush’s time as president, as a period when few if any could have succeeded and retained high approval ratings. President Bush obviously has made many mistakes, said things he shouldn’t have said, and done things that many of us would not have done, but this has been a very difficult time in our history. Maybe he brought some of this on himself (and us), but not all of it. We often forget the role of Congress and others who contribute to our successes and failures. Deep down, I can’t help but feel he is a good and decent man who just tried to do his best. We definitely needed a change in this country to move in a different direction, but I hope that our politicians in DC don’t continue to heep criticism on him even after he is gone. He was our leader for eight years, and we should show him the respect he deserves just as we demonstrate our respect for President-elect Obama and his team. Now is the time for the new folks to take control and be responsible for their own future actions as President Bush is doing right now.
Posted by: bkm | January 12, 2009, 12:41 pm 12:41 pm
Just 47 press confrences in 8 years. That’s less than 6 per year on average. Obama will do more than 47 before his first 100 days are done if he keeps up with the pace so far.
Posted by: GreggW | January 12, 2009, 12:43 pm 12:43 pm
bkm, I can’t believe what I am reading. Show Bush respect? He doesn’t deserve it. He is responsible for the unnecessary murder or civilians and soldiers in Iraq. He lied for oil. He should be tried for war crimes! He was never my leader!
Posted by: gasbtx | January 12, 2009, 12:57 pm 12:57 pm
bkm, Bush is being shown the respect he deservers, which is very little. I appreciate that he is not wallowing in self-pity, but he is not accepting responsibility for his failures. And you are excusing him. The buck stops with the President. While the President’s power is not absolute, the Bush admin behaved as if it were.
Posted by: Stacey | January 12, 2009, 1:11 pm 1:11 pm
gasbtx
I don’t believe anybody could be YOUR leader, you have a onesided view and thats it.
Posted by: Lizzie | January 12, 2009, 1:35 pm 1:35 pm
I wish Bush could take responsibility for the direction our country took after 9/11, the unjust invasion of Iraq resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis as well as thousands of our soldiers, not to mention the thousands who are permanently maimed or mentally injured, the torture and unjust arrests there, the appointments of people owed favors to important positions instead of qualified leaders resulting in the Katrina rescue and relief disaster, as well as our injured servicemen being so neglected on returning home, the de-regulation of the banking industry leading to much of our economic melt-down, etc.
But is it possible in a case like this that anyone could? To understand and accept the great harm, suffering and death that their leadership has caused, and then be able to psychologically handle it? I would imagine one would have to keep the blinders on as a way to survive. This is probably what we are seeing here. It would just be too hard to accept and go on.
Posted by: Lydia | January 12, 2009, 1:43 pm 1:43 pm
Bush has not, does not and will not take any responsibility for the last 8 years — one of his many personality flaws/diagnoses. Maybe he wasn’t burdened by the Presidency because he let others make decisions for him. Good riddance. Jan 20 cannot come fast enough.
Posted by: ohio folk | January 12, 2009, 1:44 pm 1:44 pm
“You know, it’s kind of like, ‘Why me?’” he said, mimicking someone in whiny self-pity. “‘Oh, the burdens,’ you know. ‘Why did the financial collapse have to happen on my watch?’
For some reason, that reminds me of his Carla Faye Tucker imitation before she was put to death in Texas. Bush is clearly avoiding responsibility for the financial collapse by presenting himself as victim with a situation beyond his control. Of course, he feels no self-pity and no responsibility. He and the rest of the country can’t wait for him to high tail it to Preston Hollow. Though I imagine most of the folks in Dallas feel quite differently.
Posted by: kat | January 12, 2009, 2:30 pm 2:30 pm
GreggW
Help me with this point….
Should I take the man for what he said or what he has done?
“I’m a uniter, not a divider” George W. Bush.
Posted by: tomcat27834 | January 12, 2009, 2:30 pm 2:30 pm
Hah! hes ridiculous!
He helped cause the financial crisis, Enron and his father the Enron Board Chairman all were at fault for part of this, as well as McCain’s buddy Phil Gramm, they all got deregulation of the mortgage industry and the Energy industry that both Caused Massive cost increases to consumers over the past 7 years making financial life difficult, and creating a stupid Housing bubble with insane mortgages and debt swaps, and security bundles… the whole process, unwatched, unregulated, free for all. And Bush led the GOP charge.
Bush is just horrendous.
ANd the fact that he stated that the Burdens are overStated, while he presided over some of the biggest national problems we have ever faced, just shows how uncaring he is, how dedicated to the most vacation time ever for a president, and how detached he has been from those that have suffered, from war, from trauma, from losing homes, to financial disaster, to loss of work, to loss of retirment, savings, loss of businesses, etc.
Posted by: EnoughW | January 12, 2009, 2:48 pm 2:48 pm
Shame on all of you that voted for this dry drunk ignoramus.
It must be great going through life never admitting or taking responsibility for any mistakes or errors in judgement.
Don’t let the door hit ya’ George. Good riddance.
Posted by: JB | January 12, 2009, 3:11 pm 3:11 pm
One cannot deny the passion in people’s comments about President Bush. But, it is unfortunate that some confuse that passion with partisanship and hostility. I have never thought he was our brightest and best president (he obviously wasn’t), but I do believe that he is a person who tries to do what he thinks is right. Some things happened during his presidency that he could not have prevented, changed or improved. And, he most assuredly made mistakes as he also did some positive things for our country. What I see is a man who listened and based his decisions too much to some of his key advisors who gave him (intentionally or unitentionally?) bad information. I did not vote for him in either election because I felt the other person was better able to serve. But, I cannot bring myself to blame all our woes on him nor accuse him of “war crimes.” I accept and admire his comments today as someone who is not seeking pity or questioning why things happened as they did. I appreciate his service and will give him respect even though I have disagreed with him. And, more important, I will do the same for the next President and all those that follow because that is what we do as Americans.
Posted by: bkm | January 12, 2009, 3:18 pm 3:18 pm
What a childish man Bush is. Glad he’s gone but he wrecked my country so bad in so many ways, it will probably take years and years to fix all the messes he made as a self-styled “leader”.
Posted by: buzziea | January 13, 2009, 8:28 pm 8:28 pm
bkm – maybe it’s because he shows no respect for all the lives lost while he was having fun.
Posted by: kate545 | January 14, 2009, 8:13 pm 8:13 pm
Okay, first off, yes, Bush was not a great president. In fact, he wasn’t really much of one. He was generally the goofball PR man, which is almost always true regardless of the man in charge.
However, why confuse the presidency with the clip above? He’s right about self-pity. It is pathetic. What arrogance there is in having self-pity, like you are something special. What weakness. If you’re going to accuse Bush of something, accuse him of incompetence, not self-pity.
Posted by: Bob the Chef | January 6, 2010, 2:13 pm 2:13 pm