…and I don’t care.
“Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government and to the extent the federal government didn’t fully do its job right, I take responsibility,” Bush said during a joint news conference with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
I’ve heard people say, “About time” and “Hell must have frozen over for him to admit culpability.” Frankly, his statement is pure, worthless, feel good garbage.
Why? This is a hollow, meaningless statement, even if I did believe he was sincere, which I really don’t. Usually with responsiblity comes change or more often punishment. He didn’t acknowledge that he made an error (or that anyone did really). He didn’t try to identify where improvement can be made. He isn’t up for re-election. He didn’t resign or offer to pay for losses and suffering out of his pocket. I doubt that he will flagilate himself, go to bed without supper or even put himself in time out over this one. Nothing is going to change and there will be no punishment.
I’m pretty open to accepting blame for things if there are no consequences and I don’t have to do anything differently. You can only go up in the standings when that is the case.
The President may actually have done better, politically, if he had done this a few days ago. People on both sides of the aisle get to feel good about this one. The Dems feel like they “scored a point” and will likely press the issue less. The Reps feel like they have a true leader and his approval rating may improve. The reality is that nothing is different and there is no accountability.
Congratulation Mr. President, you snowed ‘em.
September 13th, 2005 at 9:04 pm
The first step in recovery is to admit you have a problem… I’m happy that he has done this, and hope that perhaps he will follow through on this.
I agree with you (which I think is predictable if nothing else), but think that the fact that this is the first time he’s “accepted responsibility” in a way that implies (though doesn’t clearly state) that he may have made a mistake is a HUGE step for this administration.
As such (after 5 years!) it’s remarkable and worth a raised eyebrow, some (probably misplaced) hope, and some scrutiny.
That’s the key, of course… whether the press will do their job and watch the President for improvements. Specifically, no DHS job should be a patronage reward. The same should apply to governors. No state homeland security jobs should be a position for party hacks.
I hope the press follows through because I know that I sure don’t have the time to check up on CT’s or the fed’s homeland security staffing…