Bush takes pains to avoid an apology for 9/11

[radfringe]

Bush takes pains to avoid an apology for 9/11
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/169187_sorry15.html
Advisers say remorse would have made president look weak
By ADAM NAGOURNEY -- THE NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON -- It was no accident that President Bush passed up five chances Tuesday night to offer regrets, contrition or an acknowledgment that he might have made mistakes in handling the Sept. 11 attacks or the war in Iraq.

In fact, his advisers said yesterday that there was near unanimity in the White House, starting with Bush himself, that the last thing he should do in his first prime-time news conference since the Iraq war was to show any sign of remorse. And aides said Bush did not want to offer the sort of emotional apology that Richard Clarke, his former counterterrorism specialist, made -- to the annoyance of White House officials -- at the Sept. 11 commission hearings three weeks ago.

----snip---

But Bush's performance at his news conference was the latest manifestation of a leader who has seldom expressed remorse in public. And his aides said it reflected a change in the candidate and the political tenor from 2000, with Bush intent on presenting himself as an unwavering wartime president while diminishing his Democratic opponent, John Kerry, as weak on national security.

One of his senior advisers broke out laughing yesterday as he recalled the persistence of reporters pressing Bush about remorse. He suggested that contrition would have been a sign of weakness that was alien to Bush and more typically found in the corridors of the Democratic Party.

---snip---

Bush's advisers said the president had anticipated the line of inquiry at the news conference. One adviser said the White House had examined polling and focus-group results in determining that it would be a mistake for Bush to appear to yield
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yeah, not showing remorse is a real hoot, one hum-dinger of a knee-slapper.... :eyes:

meanwhile....ummm...errrrr....I thought bush* didn't govern by polls? If so then why are they scripting press conferences etc. according to polling and focus-group results?

[w13rd0]

1. Well...

"He suggested that contrition would have been a sign of weakness that was alien to Bush and more typically found in the corridors of the Democratic Party."

So here is a Bush adviser admitting that "personal responsibility" is something more typically found in the Democratic Party. And being able to recognize mistakes, and take action to prevent the same mistakes being made in the future, is what is needed. So is an arrogant, thoughtless, my way right or wrong fraud cowboy who we really want providing our "security"?

[radfringe]

2. "personal responsibility" is something.....

more typically found in the Democratic Party. "

:) I like the way you think

Democratic Party admits and takes responsibility -- Republicans talk about it, but duck and avoid taking responsibility...

[Hekate]

3. Being Bush means never having to say you're sorry...

The whole lot of them are so filled with arrogant hubris that their downfall would be a pleasure to behold if it didn't have such high risk for the rest of us. There is some madness in the White House and the Pentagon, pure madness.

Hekate

[bluestateguy]

4. I thought they didn't do polls in this White House

Isn't this the straight shooting, damn the torpedoes president, who doesn't care what the polls say?

Evidently it's more of an outrage for President Clinton to do a poll on where he will vacation than it is for Baby Bush's pollsters to direct his response to the worst terrorist attack on US soil.

[Lexingtonian]

5. We shall see

what all this "strength" and pretense to infallibility adds up to in November. The leadership of the Confederacy believed pretty much the same thing, in omnipotence of the inflexible will over everything else. Well, it prolonged that war. It still ended in defeat for them, and a comprehensive one at that.

And don't I remember something about this Administration intending to be humble and such, particularly in foreign policy?

I'm becoming more and more sure that in a few years people will refuse to admit that they ever voted for W.

[opihimoimoi]

6. Strong, arrogant, and dumb cannot beat weak, humble, and smart

Look it Osama, Iraq

[Deb]

7. I was stunned by his answer

"Not sorry"... I wonder if they realize who they aligned themselves with.

[dbt]

8. Oh, the irony! (Chapter 6345789)

If ever a being needed to literally take pains, it squats now in the Oval Office. It has 130,000 troops in Iraq to take its pains.

:freak:
dbt

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. He doesn't take responsibility for 9/11 because he wasn't involve

with national security up to that point. I'm sure that's how he sees it. If he HAD been involved, well, then he would have been accountable.