Kerry on President Bush Accepting Responsibility

[kerrygoddess]

John Kerry on President Bush Accepting Responsibility for the Federal Government’s Failures in Responding to Hurricane Katrina
September 13th, 2005

Earlier today Bush said, “I take responsibility” for failures in dealing with Hurricane Katrina. Bush plans to address the nation Thursday evening from Louisiana. I suppose we’ll hear more spin then.

Below is a statement from Senator John Kerry on President Bush accepting responsibility for the federal government’s failures in responding to Hurricane Katrina.

“This Administration still hasn’t figured out the difference between spin and leadership. The President has done the obvious, only after it was clear he couldn’t get away with the inexcusable. President Bush has accepted Michael Brown’s resignation and admitted the buck stops in the Oval Office. But there are a lot of survivors who want to know whether this will change anything. Does the White House even understand the problem? The Administration had four years after September 11th to get this right, and they were caught unforgivably unprepared to deal with a major emergency here at home. Do they now understand that our government’s efforts and resources have been going to the wrong priorities? What are they doing to make sure this never happens again other than talking tough talk?”

http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=534

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. Acceptable response, IMO n/t

[democrank]

2. Bush should just shut up and

hang his head in shame.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

3. "whether this will change anything"...that's really the KEY point.

I'm reminded of the Simpsons episode in which Bart learns that if he just keeps saying "I'm sorrrrrrrrry....," with puppy-dog eyes and a lowered head, Homer will just pat him on the head and let him go back to what he was doing.

ALL of the "I accept responsibility" crap we've heard in the last 24-48 hours is simply a feeble attempt by Rove to "humanize" Bush, to make him appear "humble" and a "leader."

As long as Bush remains president, there will be more Crawford vacations (and Kennebunkport, and Camp David, and...)

The next time something happens while he's on vacation, I'd like to see it be a PERMANENT vacation, with someone in the White House who KNOWS how to handle a crisis.

[Spinzonner]

5. Trouble is they pretty much only have people

who can cause or make crises worse.

[abluelady]

4. He's Got Nowhere to Hide.

[k j]

6. Love it!

"The President has done the obvious, only after it was clear he couldn’t get away with the inexcusable."
~~John Kerry

[iconoclastic cat]

7. Where the hell was *this* John Kerry last year?

:spank:

[kerrygoddess]

9. He was there --

The MSM wasn't.

[Clarkie1]

19. I respect Kerry tremendously, but...

lame excuse.

[emulatorloo]

11. "words, slogans and personal attacks cannot disguise what they have done"

8.25.04

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/24/kerry/index.html

<snip>

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry on Tuesday accused the Bush campaign of adopting "the tactics of fear and smear" because its record is a failed one, saying November's election comes down to a choice between right and wrong.

"The Bush campaign and its allies have turned to the tactics of fear and smear because they can't talk about jobs, health care, energy independence and rebuilding our alliances," Kerry told students at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York, near the site of next week's Republican National Convention.

"The world will listen to what the Republicans say when they come here, but words, slogans and personal attacks cannot disguise what they have done and left undone," said Kerry, who presented himself as the candidate with a plan to resolve the health-care crisis and re-energize the economy.

Kerry predicted the Republicans will contend during their convention that the nation's economy is the strongest it has been in decades.

"They've obviously decided that some people will believe anything, no matter how fictional or how far-fetched, if they just repeat it often enough. That's how they've run their administration, that's how they're running their campaign and that's how they're going to run their convention."

<snip>

[ginnyinWI]

14. here's where he was--read this:

This is what he said to the NYTimes in January 2004,(italics are mine):

This is the most important race that I can remember in my lifetime, and it's not because I'm running, it's because of what's at stake. It's because George Bush is leading the United States of America in a radically wrong direction, and I intend to turn it around. So I'm here today to ask you to join in this effort, not because this is one more day as we're going along towards the caucuses, but because we're here to mark the beginning of the end of the Bush presidency. Priority number one in this country.

Now, why? Well, in a famous moment that all of you remember, George Bush thought he could play dress-up on an aircraft carrier, and he thought he could stand up in front of a big sign that said "Mission Accomplished." Well, what mission? Certainly not Iraq. But look at that "Mission Accomplished" measured against what's happening here in America.

He thought you wouldn't notice that all across the country, every minute two jobs are being lost. Every day we add $1 billion to the deficit of our nation. Well, the fact is we have noticed it, haven't we? And we understand, all of us, that the consequences are severe: 3.1 million people have been laid off. You go around Iowa, you go all around other states, you can meet the families that are feeling the consequences of that. I talked to a man in Waterloo, Bob Anderson. I remember he's about 46 years old, lost his job about a year ago, can't pay for health insurance, his wife has been diagnosed with cancer, he has nowhere to turn. Think George Bush worried about him? . . .

<snip>

When you measure it all, and I will, every day across Iowa, across New Hampshire, across this country, it's going to be clear to everyone in America that the one person in the United States who deserves to be laid off is George W. Bush.

[iconoclastic cat]

16. Okay, okay, I'll admit that he did have some fire then, too.

[jillan]

25. This Kerry was there last year. That's why I supported him, not just ABBB

[LittleClarkie]

26. Same place Gore was before HIS "loss"

I think both men have been liberated.

But this Kerry did show up toward the end, when he'd gotten poked in the nose just enough to get pissed. The rally at the end of the RNC convention was a case in point. "Unfit to serve" from Cheney set Kerry off and he just reamed them a new one.

We just need to keep him angry, tis all. If he's where I think he is, in Louisiana, he must be seeing plenty to make him mighty angry.

[emulatorloo]

8. Kerry ties Katrina and 9/11 together the way it outta be done. . .

"The Administration had four years after September 11th to get this right, and they were caught unforgivably unprepared to deal with a major emergency here at home. Do they now understand that our government’s efforts and resources have been going to the wrong priorities? What are they doing to make sure this never happens again other than talking tough talk?”

[melissinha]

10. I like the format

Its composed of strong conclusions... and then followed up with questions.... leading questions, but questions that should be answered in some way or another.

[Coexist]

12. Wonderful response

[Supersedeas]

13. hmmm, doesn't sound that tough anymore...but he does a some script to read

Thursday nite...maybe the speech writers can get it right for Dimson.

[opihimoimoi]

15. The Pubs are Reactors...not Pro-actors

But the fact remains....Bush failed to respond to the Basic Problem Solving of caring for the Peeps of NOLA and elsewhere....

He let it go for 5 days....that sez it all. the rape,looting,plunder, crime, muggings, no food water, etc....and unsanitary conditions...it was like

"Let them eat shit" of the Marie Antoinette fame....

Bush is of like mind

[ElsewheresDaughter]

17. look .....WHAT WE'VE GROWN.......

[New Earth]

18. w00t

:loveya:

[Clarkie1]

20. Good response. n/t

[wisteria]

21. Great response! I feel the same way! n/t

[Land Shark]

22. The Full * Quote is reprinted here

The president accepts responsibility

'to the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right.'

Unless they are admitting federal mistakes, this is no responsibility taken at all.

Also, it is only vicarious liability based on "the buck stops here" and not primary liability for his own personal actions and inactions.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

23. "Doesn't work for me, I gotta have more cowbell!"

[politicasista]

24. kick!

Cool statement. :kick: