Presidenting is Hard Work

So Bush gave his awesome speech last night, and looked super relaxed and confident doing it, too—not a hint of panicked desperation that he’s on the fast track to becoming the most loathed president in American history.


I can’t decide what my favorite line was, but here are a couple of favorites:

I have asked for, and the Congress has provided, more than 60 billion dollars. This is an unprecedented response to an unprecedented crisis, which demonstrates the compassion and resolve of our nation.

Call me jaded, but I think Congress signing off on $60 billion is less indicative of compassion or resolve, and more of the enormous scale of the fucking disaster.

To meet this goal, I will listen to good ideas from Congress, state and local officials, and the private sector.

Here’s a good idea from the private sector: RESIGN! And take your gaggle of useless cronies with you.

As all of us saw on television, there is also some deep, persistent poverty in this region as well.

Seriously—I know that he isn’t literally trying to suggest he learned about the poverty in New Orleans for the first time when he saw it on television, but since a whole hell of a lot of people think that’s probably pretty damn close to the truth, his speechwriters should have reworked that one. Unless they’re sick of him steering the country straight down the turd tunnel, too, and figure maybe they ought to let him tell he truth about his detached ignorance for a change, heh.

At the end of the speech, the president lugged his tired ass back up the steps of Air Force One and returned to Washington.


President Flopsweat
I’m not altogether sure he feels that speech went as well as he’d hoped.

Read The Heretik for a really excellent take on the speech, too.