I don’t know if George Bush slept well last night. But I think he did.
Yesterday he held his final press conference. He was asked if he made any mistakes. This was not the first time he was asked this question, but it was the first time he answered it. Some excerpts:
Clearly putting a ‘Mission Accomplished’ on a aircraft carrier was a mistake. It sent the wrong message.
Obviously, some of my rhetoric has been a mistake.
I’ve thought long and hard about Katrina — …could I have done something differently, like land Air Force One either in New Orleans or Baton Rouge. [This would have caused]…police officers that were needed to expedite traffic out of New Orleans [to be taken off the task so to look after me].
I believe that running the Social Security idea right after the ‘04 elections was a mistake.
I should have argued for immigration reform.
There have been disappointments. Abu Ghraib obviously was a huge disappointment during the presidency. Not having weapons of mass destruction was a significant disappointment.
So George Bush probably felt relieved last night to get this off his chest. He did the best he could. Yeah, in his mind he did make mistakes and, with the presidency winding down, he admitted them. And I’m certain he felt like a big burden was taken off his shoulders. And I suspect he slept well last night.
But did he really come to grips with his “mistakes”? Tomorrow, I will re-look at his answer as I think it is indicative of a major George Bush flawed personality trait. Even when discussing mistakes, he largely justifies his actions and skirts accountability for poor judgment.
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my fav: ’sometimes you misunderestimated me…’