Bill Clinton: "Government" failed. Does that mean BUSH, Mr. President?

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Clinton: Government 'failed' people

Monday, September 5, 2005; Posted: 7:26 p.m. EDT (23:26 GMT)



http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/05/clinton.katrina/index.html

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Former President Bill Clinton on Monday said the government "failed" the thousands of people who lived in coastal communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and said a federal investigation was warranted in due time.

"Our government failed those people in the beginning, and I take it now there is no dispute about it," Clinton told CNN. "One hundred percent of the people recognize that -- that it was a failure." (See interview -- 2:32 )

He and former President George H. W. Bush have launched the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund to help raise money for those left homeless by the storm. (Full story)

Clinton is just the latest in a long line of critics who have blasted the federal government for not moving fast enough to help people in the immediate aftermath of Katrina, which slammed into the Gulf Coast one week ago as a Category 4 hurricane.

[lancdem]

1. He said "our" govt. in the interview

Sounds like he means the feds, which means Bush.

[Deus Irae]

2. I think it's clear what he meant.

No need to try and read more into it.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

7. See reply #6...

There most certaily IS a need to "read something into it."

[napi21]

3. Class Act ex-Presidents don't speak against current ones!

We all may love to hear him say Shrub fuckin' screwed up this time! But you have to admit, BC is a class act and he drops just enough of a statement to let people know how he feels, without openly denegrating little ole Shrubby!

[Deus Irae]

5. BC is far from a "class act"

But I do believe he was a better President than Bush.

[ChiciB1]

4. Thank You Mr. President...

And I must say.... IT'S ABOUT TIME!

Now the rest of you Democrats, GET OFF YOUR BUTTS! Let the flame begin!

[Lena inRI]

6. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt . . .

but he better stop schmoozing with GHWB, Sr and appear more with the likes of Jimmy Carter. . .how about Clinton-Carter pushing Habitat for Humanity to work for NO, MS, AL victims?

VERY irritating to see Bush Sr-Clinton photo ops!

:grr:

[applegrove]

8. They are as angry as we are. They are.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

9. Once again, see reply #6.

I will BELIEVE Bill Clinton is angry when he REFRAINS from photo ops with the Bush family.

I UNDERSTAND that as an ex-president, he must REFRAIN from attacking a SITTING president.

He's been "refraining" a little too much for my tastes.

Just my opinion.

[PeachPye]

10. excerpt "the Unfeeling President"

This is only an excerpt, which I do not believe breaches copyright, but I think it pretty well sums it up:

The Unfeeling President
The President we get the country we get.
By E.L. Doctorow
The East Hampton Star

He will say in all sincerity he is
relieving the wealthiest 1 percent of the population of their tax burden
for the sake of the rest of us, and that he is polluting the air we
breathe for the sake of our economy, and that he is decreasing the
quality of air in coal mines to save the coal miners' jobs, and that he
is depriving workers of their time-and-a-half benefits for overtime
because this is actually a way to honor them by raising them into the
professional class.

And this litany of lies he will versify with reverences for God and
the flag and democracy, when just what he and his party are doing to our
democracy is choking the life out of it.

But there is one more terribly sad thing about all of this. I
remember the millions of people here and around the world who marched
against the war. It was extraordinary, that spontaneous aroused oversoul
of alarm and protest that transcended national borders. Why did it
happen? After all, this was not the only war anyone had ever seen
coming. There are little wars all over he world most of the time.

But the cry of protest was the appalled understanding of millions of
people that America was ceding its role as the last best hope of
mankind. It was their perception that the classic archetype of democracy
was morphing into a rogue nation. The greatest democratic republic in
history was turning its back on the future, using its extraordinary
power and standing not to advance the ideal of a concordance of
civilizations but to endorse the kind of tribal combat that originated
with the Neanderthals, a people, now extinct, who could imagine ensuring
their survival by no other means than pre-emptive war.

The president we get is the country we get. With each president the
nation is conformed spiritually. He is the artificer of our malleable
national soul. He proposes not only the laws but the kinds of
lawlessness that govern our lives and invoke our responses. The people
he appoints are cast in his image. The trouble they get into and get us
into, is his characteristic trouble.

Finally, the media amplify his character into our moral weather
report. He becomes the face of our sky, the conditions that prevail. How
can we sustain ourselves as the United States of America given the
stupid and ineffective warmaking, the constitutionally insensitive
lawgiving, and the monarchal economics of this president? He cannot
mourn but is a figure of such moral vacancy as to make us mourn for


ourselves.

[laugle]

11. Yea, I was shocked when he said that, but happy and

I do commend him for standing up. Of course, he tried to qualify it with "100% now agree with that", Clinton is a diplomat and any piling on would look bad.

Also, I was sad to see him looking so gaunt again, I sure hope he will be okay...but he doesn't look well.

There will be plenty of time to pile on later.

[alfredo]

12. Bush wanted to be dictator. With absolute power comes

absolute responsibility.

bush, you make a miserable dictator.

[Heewack]

13. The government always fails. n/t

.