Bush COULD NOT admit to any mistakes ...

[lanparty]

Bush's core narcissistic personality struck him tonight. When asked for an example of a mistake and how he fixed it, he just started rambling about OTHER PEOPLE'S mistake.

[sangh0]

1. It's psychopathic

.

[qanda]

2. Very telling...

Isn't it?

[Ravenseye]

3. Exactly

Here's a guy who can NEVER admit a mistake. Out of everything he did the closest he got was saying that a few nominations were bad, but he wouldn't mention them.

thats just crap.

[lanparty]

22. Richard Clarke, Paul O'Neill

... then he probably remembered that mentioning those guys would only make HIM look bad instead of his intention of throwing mud on those guys.

[bloom]

4. that was a good question to include...

I wonder how the Freepers, etc. interpret that. They might just eat that up.

[Mr_Spock]

5. I like how he "assumed" the person was trying to frame him on Iraq

He looked so small and pathetic by acting defensively on a question that was posed very nicely to him. What a piece of mierd.

[SEpatriot]

10. Interesting psychological twist

The woman asked him to admit 3 mistakes. His only admitted mistakes were in appointing some mysterious people.

But he immediately launched into a defense of his Iraq war and his tax cut. So, somewhere down deep inside is he questioning whether these were mistakes? Hmmmmmmmmm?

[jean]

13. yes-he said, 'that's what they mean' - the ubiquitous 'they'

[Mr_Spock]

18. Yeah, that's right, he showed a kind of paranoid "they" didn't he

It was actually very telling about what he does know and what he is trying to avoid as detailed by his prep people. VERY telling...

[Mr_Spock]

15. Well, my first thought was "Powell" - hehe

I know he thinks he made a mistake there!

Maybe Rummy too?

[lanparty]

23. Methinks the lady doth protest too much !!!!!

...

This reveals Bush's fixation on Iraq. The thought of domestic woes doesn't even cross his mind. After all he's a war peace president.

[Jade Fox]

11. I bet she's not voting for Bush!

She must have been really insulted. She stated clearly her terms and he
just ignored her.

[Birthmark]

6. I think that that sealed his doom with undecideds.

[LVdem]

7. I've never made a mistake either...

like doing coke at camp david

[soggy]

8. i wouldn't have appointed paul o'neal

and i would have fired richard clarke. oh, and that guy that called us "mayberry machiavellis"... i should've had him shot...

[dpbrown]

9. I thought that was very telling!

He STILL can't admit a mistake.

[AgadorSparticus]

12. What a jerkface. He disgusts me to no end.....

How can anyone confuse that for "strength"? ARGH!

[BattyDem]

14. He kept saying things like ...

"Other people may think I made a mistake" or "Historians may judge my decisions and call them mistakes" but he never admitted to anything. I also find it very telling that he immediately assumed she was talking about Iraq!

[TruthWins]

16. Was wishing Kerry had jumped on that with

"You couldn't think of any mistakes in a press conference three months ago and you still can't?"

[MatrixEscape]

17. Crucial point!

The Fuhrer NEVER makes any mistakes!!!

He had a great chance to counter that point. He did nothing to squash it.

We all know now that Bush is divine. He cannot and does not make any mistakes. We are the only ones who do. That is, his loyal subjects.

Are we going back to a Monarchy then? Only someone who is above and beyond human can ever court the idea that they are infallible above everyone else.

Bush has now made that point clear to the American people. He cannot admit any real mistake in a public forum. Only a true despot would even imagine that America would cowtow to such an insinuation.

It is time to throw the tyrant off of our backs. He is only going to make us all a big mistake in order to prove he is the only one who is right.

[Quadrajet]

19. The moderator should have...

The moderator should have asked him the question again, just to drive the point home.

[BattyDem]

21. The moderator should have told him ...

to do a Google on the "Internets" - he'd find plenty of mistakes!
:evilgrin:

[Vincardog]

27. Kerry should have yielded his time for Bush to answer the question

[life_long_dem]

33. good thought

but he still wouldn't have answered it and he would have had 90 sec.
to spin some more BS.

[Technowitch]

20. Too true

I seriously think that he's pathologically incapable of taking responsibility for anything or admitting he's ever made an error.

Sad.

[shanti]

24. it's not the first time this has happened, either

somebody asked him that before and he couldn't give an answer then.

[wiggs]

25. He avoided answering a lot of questions by disagreeing with the premise

He did not accept the premise that he may have made a mistake, therefore he didn't really answer the question. He did not accept the premise that some people feel that the Patriot Act has eroded civil liberties, and therefore did not answer the question. He did not agree that alienating other countries is a problem and therefore didn't answer the question about how to heal rifts with allies.

This happened probably half a dozen times tonight....dismissing the questioner's concern about a problem and defending against the premise itself. WE SAW THE SAME ATTITUDE TONIGHT THAT WE SEE EVERYDAY FROM THE WH...THERE IS NO PROBLEM, EVERYTHING IS FINE, THERE ARE NO REGRETS, NO REASON TO WORRY, WHY CAN'T YOU SEE THAT THE WORLD IS SAFER, AMERICA BETTER, ENVIRONMENT HEALTHIER, AND EVERYONE HAPPIER?

[shanti]

28. great assessment

i can't believe that so many people have swallowed this koolaid. but after listening to some of the callers on cspan tonite...:eyes:

[Protagoras]

26. THIS should be a point hammered in and

hammered hard. Call into Cspan and write those LTTE and bring this up at every opportunity. This should have been the end of the campaing and election right here but honestly Kerry was trying to close on Iraq and missed the huge opportunity to answer this for bush and call him on his inability to answer it.

Where the hell does the Buck stop Bush?

[lefty_WOHM]

29. He could have handled it so easily

All he would have to do is come up w/ three minor little things. Or even say something like, "I think I gave Saddam too much of a chance"--something that actually supports one of his positions. And esp. after he got that same question from a reporter & couldn't come up w/ anything. This answer just makes him look bad, bad, bad (to everyone except the "true believers").

When the woman asked it, DH & I were both like "OMG--THREE?! He couldn't even come up w/ ONE before, and now they want THREE?!"

[the_outsider]

30. very true and I thought that was a missed opportunity

Kerry should have jumped on that and pointed out that Bush avoided the question before listing his mistakes. Something along the line of President is just not capable of admitting mistakes, along the line of last debate's great line ... You could be certain and you could be wrong. That was the last question too..

[lectrobyte]

31. I'd have thought after doing this same answer in the press conference, *'s

handlers would have prepped him for this somehow. It's almost, no, exactly like the standard job interview question, talk about a failure, mistake etc. The desired response is to explain something that went wrong, then what you learned from it, or would do differently next time, etc. It's amazing to me that this is such a struggle for *, but I'm glad it is, because all that "aw shucks" act crumbles when they see the arrogance, and lack of humility. Heck, even Reagan admitted to some mistakes.

[lanparty]

32. I wish Kerry had stepped in ...

Kerry should have said something like this:

'Well, Mr President, you didn't answer her question. But I'll help you.

You shouldn't have looked at ALL the intelligence instead of only the intelligence that reinforced your desire for war.
You shouldn't have antagonized France and Germany because they didn't agree with your position.
You should have had a PLAN ready for our troops once they reached Iraq beyond securing the oil ministry.
You should NOT have disbanded the entire Iraqi military. Instead you should have carefully selected honest officers to lead this force and improsoned the Baathists.
You should have stopped the looting of Iraq's civil institutions.
You should have brought enough troops to STOP that looting and restore order.
You should have brought veterans from Kosovo to lead Iraqi reconstruction.
You should NOT have hired just graduated children of your right wing allies to supervise Iraqi reconstruction.
You should have put FAR more emphasis on Iraqis rebuilding their own country using their extensive expertise. You should have gotten the Iraqi people back to work!!!
You should NEVER had trusted Akhmed Chalabi!!!
You should NOT have appointed John Negroponte to be ambassador to Iraq.

You shouldn't have cut taxes on the wealthiest americans.
You shouldn't have cut environmental protection.
You shouldn't have cut pay to soldiers in Iraq!!!
You shouldn't have closed down all those veterans hospitals!!!
You shouldn't have employed industry lobbyists to protect consumers against industry.
You shouldn't have allowed mountain-top mining.

You should have met with Richard Clarke before your summer vacation in 2001.
You shouldn't have taken the LONGEST vacation in presidential history.
You should have read your intelligence briefings from the Clinton administration. You should have KNOWN about project Boijinka!!!
You should have appointed a different Attorney General who was more concerned about counter-terrorism than pornography.
You should have been more concerned about counter-terrorism than missle defense!!!

You should have STOPPED 9/11!!!!!!