The night of September 11, 2001, I made it a point to watch George W. Bush's address to the nation.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

I did not like the job he was doing as President at the time.

Looking back on it, I still do not like the job he was doing as President.

But, I realized that this was a historic event, and despite all my misgivings about him, I still wanted to hear the remarks delivered by the man who was in office as President at the time. Strictly for the purposes of historical record, and nothing else.

Yesterday, however, I had no desire to tune in for Trump's remarks. None whatsoever.

There's not an ounce of Presidential behavior in the man's body. We will never see it from him. Ever.

[exboyfil]

1. Bush II is Winston Churchill

next to the "man" in the office now.

[JCMach1]

5. Sarah Palin held herself with more dignity and distinction

On the Masked Singer than Trump showed last night

[mdbl]

35. i would have to disagree with you

I think Palen and Trump are pretty equal in their arrogant stupidity.

[JCMach1]

42. Trump is beyond the beyond...

[marble falls]

37. Almost alerted that! Hell he's St Augestine next to Trump!

[Stuart G]

2. I also could not watch it. I also had no desire to listen to Trump

Postponing the vote on the bill, is the stupidest, most idiotic thing he has ever done.

[DownriverDem]

43. I never watch or

listen to trump. I read about everything he does or says. He is leading repubs on. Will they get it when they start dying?

[SergeStorms]

44. Same here.

When they flash his picture on the TV I extend my left middle finger about a foot from my face, close one eye, and blot out his picture. The 'mute' button is pressed anytime they have a clip if "it" speaking. I won't allow him to assault my senses at all.

[BComplex]

3. When Junior (Bush II) starts looking like the good ole days,

we're in seriously deep shit.

[uponit7771]

4. +1

[exboyfil]

7. Miss me meme for Obama's presidency

No!!!!!!

Now
Yes!!!!!!!!!

[DinahMoeHum]

8. Joe Biden is going to make a statement at 1 pm ET today.

Link to tweet

'Twill be very interesting to compare Joe's statement today to TrumptyDumpty's last night.



#newrostrong

[marble falls]

38. If he has a coherent plan the meshes with some of what other countries are doing, he's golden.

[calimary]

41. YES. Stepping up and showing how a sane leader with genuine concern for his country

(and NOT in how he might profit from it).

Btw - I wrote the above BEFORE Joe Biden took to the microphone to deliver an address to the public.

What we just saw there: exactly what a President SHOULD be doing and saying to the American people - AND the rest of the world.

[TwilightZone]

9. My partner and I were just talking about W in context of the current situation.

We agreed that Bush would have handled it appropriately. For all his faults - and they were legion - W knew when circumstances transcended politics and could be presidential when required. He also knew to surround himself with people who could handle a crisis and not an administration full of the worst, most incompetent people in every position of importance.

Complete night and day with Trump.

[PCIntern]

10. Ummmm....Katrina?

But your point is taken.

[TwilightZone]

15. Different scale, and Katrina was a failure in understanding the threat as much as anything

It's a good point, though. The difference, perhaps, is that this is on a scale that's unprecedented, and I just don't see him sitting idly by if he'd been given the same information Trump has been given. With Katrina, he didn't take the threat seriously, thinking the worst was over right after the storm blew through (plus, brown people), but with COVID, I can't imagine anyone not understanding the potential based on what we know.

And we know Trump has been given way more information than we have. Trump knows, he's just in denial hoping it will go away and/or hoping he can hide it until November.

[Bengus81]

17. If I knew the severity of Katrina on New Orleans then how could

Bush not know? FEMA didn't show up for at least 4-5 days and then bungled it--heck of a job Brownie. Even Sheppard Smith on FOX was down there a day or two later shouting at the top of his lungs THERE IS NO ONE HERE!! Meaning FEMA.

Lot's of Blacks that Bush didn't give a shit about and his POC mom later said how GREAT they had it getting to live in the sweltering New Orleans Super dome. The entire Bush family is GARBAGE,just like Trump and his family.

[TwilightZone]

22. They based the initial response on early reports right after the storm passed.

At that time, there was minimal flooding and the damage wasn't yet what we would later see, even hours later. Chertoff left for a conference and Brown didn't bother following up, so no one in any position to do anything about it understood the potential scope or monitored the situation. Of course, 50 levee breaks later, the city was inundated and people were dying.

The difference, at least in my opinion, is that this time, everyone understands that the scope is significant, even those who are downplaying the potential. Given the same information Trump was given up front, I don't see Bush making the same mistakes. Plus, there are more than brown people involved this time.

I could certainly be wrong, but I think Trump's indifference and selfish motivations are unprecedented, even when compared to W. This is all relative to W, not relative to what a competent president would have done.

[marble falls]

40. I remember about two days before it hit I heard the NWS announcement and I thought ...

it was fear mongering and way, way over the top!

My problem wasn't about what W didn't have in place before it hit, it was about all the things he didn't do after it hit.

One thing he didn't do that I support him 100% about? He didn't toss rolls of paper towels.

[azureblue]

25. I wrote this daily as the Katrina disaster unfolded.

notice the similarities - greed, ignorance, failure to respond:
February 2001
Bush’s first budget proposed more than half a billion dollars worth of cuts to the Army Corps of Engineers for the 2002 fiscal year. Bush proposed half of what his own officials said was necessary for the critical Southeast Louisiana Flood Control Project (SELA)—a project started after a 1995 rainstorm flooded 25,000 homes and caused a half billion dollars in damage.
February 2002
Bush provided just $5 million for maintaining and upgrading critical hurricane protection levees in New Orleans
February 2004
The SELA project sought $100 million to repair the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain levees, but Bush offered only $16.5 million
George Bush (43) -- August 2005 -- Cat-5 Hurricane Katrina bears down on New Orleans and the Mississippi gulf. Both states are down nearly 8,000 National Guard troops because they are in Iraq -- with most of the rescue gear needed.
Bush is on vacation. The day before Katrina makes landfall, Bush rides his bike for two hours. The day Katrina hits, he goes to John McCain's birthday party, and lies to old people about the multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical company welfare boondoggle.
People are dying, the largest port of entry in the United States (and fifth largest in the World) is under attack. Troops and supplies are desperately needed. The levees are cracking and the emergency 1-1/2 ton sandbags are ready, but there aren't enough helicopters or pilots to set them before the levees fail. The mayor of New Orleans begs for Federal coordination, but there is none, and the sandbagging never gets done. Bush goes to San Diego, to play guitar with a country singer and lie to the military about how Iraq is just exactly like WWII. The levees give way, filling New Orleans with water, sewage, oil and chemicals. Ten percent of all US exports, and 50% of all agricultural exports ordinarily go through this port. It is totally destroyed. Bush decides he'll end his vacation a couple of days early -- BECAUSE HE HAS TICKETS TO A PADRES GAME.
He goes back to the farm in Crawford, with every intention of doing something on WEDNESDAY about this disaster that happened starting last SUNDAY night. He had time for a couple of rounds of golf, too.

[TwilightZone]

29. His incompetence and disinterest quite clearly were factors.

Bush was isolated in his own little world by the incompetent dopes in his administration (Chertoff and Brown, to name two), which lead to the lack of preparedness and lack of a response. Of that, there is no doubt and you're not going to get any argument from me.

My point is that I don't think even Bush could have ignored the scope of the current crisis the way Trump has. Trump (and Bush, in similar circumstances) simply can't ignore the scope and can't be isolated from the news, because there's too much out there to deny the scope and seriousous of the situation. In fact, Trump is actually quite aware of it all and is trying to put on a happy face hoping he can bullshit his way through or it magically goes away. Put Bush in the same situation with the same information and I don't think he makes the same mistakes.

And, again, to be clear, I'm only comparing Bush to Trump, not any reasonably-competent president. The comparison to an incompetent like Bush is more of an indictment of Trump than any endorsement of Bush. This could make Katrina look like a speed bump when it's all over.

[LisaM]

18. He was better than what we have now in that he had somewhat competent people around him.

However, his Supreme Court picks, and theft of the election, led us to the point where we are now. I don't think we should try to sugarcoat that just because of what's going on now.

An Al Gore presidency between 2000 and 2008 - well, it makes me furious to think of what we lost.

[TwilightZone]

23. Yes, it's a comparison solely of W and Trump.

Bush is only preferable in the context of a comparison with Trump, not any reasonably-competent president.

The fact that a president as horrible as W is compared favorably in crisis management (even considering Katrina, as another poster noted) to our current president is an indictment of Trump, not an endorsement of Bush. This may make Katrina pale in comparison when it's all over.

[mdbl]

36. what?

Have you forgotten about Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney? Those two alone discredit your statement.

[TwilightZone]

39. Trump is worse.

I don't think there's anyone, including W, who would have handled this more poorly than Trump has. It's not even possible.

[yaesu]

11. I did too & even Bush is so far removed from that idiot in the WH its unbelievable. nt

[BigDemVoter]

12. I do agree that in COMPARISON to Pussy-Grabber, Bush II

is a real winner. . . . HOWEVER. . . Never, never forget what a complete and utter idiot and dumbfuck Bush II was. . . . They received specific warnings about this well in advance, and had this been a Dem Pres, we'd still be hearing about it today. . . .

I did not watch Bush that day but saw some snippets. I'm glad I missed it.

Nonetheless. . . I DO get your point about Pussy-Grabber, seriously.

[cab67]

13. Most presidents are at least able to deliver comforting speeches after a disaster.

FDR after Pearl Harbor; Reagan after the Challenger disaster; Clinton after the OKC bombing and Columbine; GWB after 9-11; Obama after a couple of mass shootings and the Joplin, MO tornado. Even Nixon could pull it off - I've read the text of the address he'd have given had Apollo 11 gone badly. That's part of a president's job - to be a source of calm, sympathy, and reassurance in the wake of a crisis.

Every time Trump opens his yap, people feel less secure. His addresses make things worse.

[Traildogbob]

14. Watch trump????

Hell no! The Women's US National Soccer team was in a match and won, winning the tournament in their normal grand fashion. I preferred to watch real patriotism and boost my moral. Also, why we need women in control. Fuck old white men to hell. GOP ones. I am a librul old white man, retired as college faculty in science field. Have a brain and a heart. Those women are the greatest thing America has as a image right now.

[Ilsa]

21. Agreed! The women we have in politics now

are not about ego, but solving problems, with heart, and administering the government in the way it should work.

[40RatRod]

16. Unfortunately, Bush II and Cheney invaded the wrong country and...

...over 50,000 young men and women paid the ultimate sacrifice because of his incompetence. Just think what could happen if the bone spur orange clown steals another election.

[tinrobot]

19. Zero leadership. We're pretty much on our own this time out.

Thankfully, my state is doing a pretty good job.

[Lonestarblue]

20. Trump must be pressured to resign.

Not that he is likely to do so, but he needs to hear from many, many people that we are fed up with his ineptness, corruption, and appointments of incompetent people to positions of importance. I don’t know how to do this, but I’ll sign any petition demanding his resignation for incompetence. If he continues as he has in the past couple of weeks, we will be in another Great Depression, and thousands more citizens will be ill. I don’t like Pence, but he sounds sane compared to Trump.

[lame54]

24. Like his back-lit photo-op after Katrina

[SunSeeker]

26. The stock market agrees with you. No one is reassured, just the opposite. nt

[Mz Pip]

27. I watched it.

He struggled to read a speech he did not write. He had extra bronzer on so was particularly orange. Promised stuff he can’t deliver - like saying testing and treatment would be free. Testing yes, treatment no way.

He said our economy was strong. Really? This is a disaster for the economy.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

28. W's statements and behavior in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 were at least appropriate

if not inspiring. Obviously the subsequent Iraq war was a disastrous mistake, but I'll give W credit for acting like he understood the seriousness of the 9/11 attacks and that he had to try to reassure the public and talk about responses going forward. Trump can't even do that.

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

31. The one line of his after Katrina was memorable - cant imagine a US without New Orleans - of course

the rest his response to Katrina was an abomination but that's a conversation for another time....

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

32. Yes, his response to Katrina was bad. But I'll give him credit

for behaving like a normal (if somewhat low-wattage) president after 9/11, at least until Cheney and Rumsfeld talked him into the Iraq debacle.

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

30. I didnt watch either - was he snorting and snuffling like usual? He always sounds like

someone I would NOT want to sit next to on a bus.

[FailureToCommunicate]

33. I watched him. You didn't miss a thing. He could barely read the teleprompter of some-

one's speech given to him to read. He declared a travel ban from most of Europe, just not the countries where he has golf courses, and ended with several impossible statements and a few dry platitudes. His body language showed visible relief when he finished reading the screen. Probably the most taxing thing he's had to do for a while. Sad.

November can't come soon enough!

[Pepsidog]

34. I block everything he says other Rs say. There is nothing worth listening to.

[MarianJack]

45. I was watching Family Feud reruns on Game Show Network.

The only thing I wast to hear Dolt45 say is that he's resigning and taking Pence with him.

RESIST!

[Skittles]

46. the people rallying around Dubya emboldend them into lying their way into the Iraq war

people still die EVERY DAY because of that - EVERY DAY

[MFM008]

47. I remember

Clearly.
It almost made me regret i thought he was a dumb ass.

[live love laugh]

48. Yep I won't watch either. I get second hand info from f & f. nt