In an interview with Der Spiegel former Chief of Staff for former President George W. Bush, Andy Card, shows just out of touch members of the Bush administration are when he states the following about Obama:
"I think he has pounded his chest a little too much. He can take pride in it, but he does not need to show it so much."
And after the interviewer pointed out that Obama has refrained from acting too triumphant Card replies:
"I thought his statement was subdued, but I think his schedule is not subdued. Personally, I think it is premature to go to Ground Zero, in New York. I think my role model in this would be George H. W. Bush, when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. It was a day to celebrate, but we did not dance on the Wall."
Rather than going on with a long explanation calling bullshit on Card's assessment I will just let two pictures taken at public events do the talking. The first one is of George W. Bush following the end of major combat operations in Iraq and the second is of Obama after Osama bin Laden was killed.
President George W. Bush, May 1, 2003
President Barack Obama May 5, 2011
Looking at these two pictures I'm not sure how Card's assessment of Obama's handling of the aftermath of the bin Laden raid can be taken seriously. President Obama has been measured and respectful in response to this historic event and to imply otherwise is just bitterness on the part of Bush administration officials.
We have been hearing all morning how, if former President George W. Bush made the same quip about the Special Olympics that President Barack Obama made on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," he would have been skewered and taken more heat than Obama is taking and we agree. However there are three reasons for that actions, record and reputation.
Even before he was elected president Bush showed what type of uncaring bastard he was when, in an interview Tucker Carlson, he mocked death row inmate Karla Faye Tucker.
In the weeks before the execution, Bush says, "A number of protesters came to Austin to demand clemency for Karla Faye Tucker." "Did you meet with any of them?" I ask. Bush whips around and stares at me. "No, I didn't meet with any of them", he snaps, as though I've just asked the dumbest, most offensive question ever posed. "I didn't meet with Larry King either when he came down for it. I watched his interview with Tucker, though. He asked her real difficult questions like, 'What would you say to Governor Bush?'" "What was her answer?" I wonder. "'Please,'" Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation, "'don't kill me.'" I must have looked shocked — ridiculing the pleas of a condemned prisoner who has since been executed seems odd and cruel — because he immediately stops smirking.
And let's not forget after he lied this country into a war with Iraq Bush had the audacity, during a White House Correspondents' Dinner, to joke about not being able to find the weapons of mass destruction he used as the reason for starting the damn war. Here is a report from David Corn who wrote about it in the Nation:
But at one point, Bush showed a photo of himself looking for something out a window in the Oval Office, and he said, "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere."
The audience laughed. I grimaced. But that wasn't the end of it. After a few more slides, there was a shot of Bush looking under furniture in the Oval Office. "Nope," he said. "No weapons over there." More laughter. Then another picture of Bush searching in his office: "Maybe under here." Laughter again.
On the other hand President Obama will likely move beyond this because of his actions, record and reputation.
He took action by IMMEDIATELY apologizing and calling the head of the Special Olympics, his legislative record is viewed to be favorable to the Special Olympics and the communities it serves, and his reputation is that of compassionate caring individual.
Yeah Bush would have been skewered but he probably would have deserved it.
