Bush in 1999:
"He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999," said author and journalist Mickey Herskowitz. "It was on his mind. He said to me: 'One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.' And he said, 'My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.' He said, 'If I have a chance to invade·.if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency." Herskowitz said that Bush expressed frustration at a lifetime as an underachiever in the shadow of an accomplished father. In aggressive military action, he saw the opportunity to emerge from his father's shadow. The moment, Herskowitz said, came in the wake of the September 11 attacks. "Suddenly, he's at 91 percent in the polls, and he'd barely crawled out of the bunker."
Bush in November 2004
And it's one of the wonderful -- it's like earning capital. You asked, do I feel free. Let me put it to you this way: I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it. It is my style. That's what happened in the -- after the 2000 election, I earned some capital. I've earned capital in this election -- and I'm going to spend it for what I told the people I'd spend it on, which is -- you've heard the agenda: Social Security and tax reform, moving this economy forward, education, fighting and winning the war on terror.
Bush last week:
New details emerged over the weekend of a remarkably
tumultuous White House meeting on the bailout Thursday. With
the session breaking up in disarray, according to two
participants, Bush issued an appeal, saying, "Can't we just
all go out and say things are OK?"
The group around the table, which included congressional
leaders and the presidential nominees-Republican John McCain
and Democrat Barack Obama -spurned the request.
Bush, today:
President George Bush expressed disappointment Monday after the House failed to approve the $700 billion plan to bail out the U.S. financial markets.
"I was disappointed in the vote with the U.S. Congress on the economic rescue plan," Bush said during a joint media opportunity with the Ukranian president. "We put forth a plan that was big because we got a big problem."
The bipartisan plan meant to address the root of the financial crisis -- home mortgage-related assets that have lost value during the housing decline -- failed on a 205-228 vote, falling 13 votes shy of the 218 needed for passage.
Bush said he would be talking with his economic advisers and his administration would work with congressional leaders on the plan to stabilize U.S. financial systems.
"Our strategy is to continue to address this economic situation head-on," Bush said. "And we'll be working to develop a strategy that will enable us to continue to move forward."
Art found here.
2 comments:
What always bugged me about that "capital" metaphor was that he intended to SPEND it.
The capital he's talking about is good will, approval, general willingness to believe him or at least listen.
He never seems to have considered that to SPEND that capital would mean to endorse such measures that he would be left with bad will, disapproval, distrust, disgust, as indicated by extremely low approval rating.
But wasn't that obvious by his own metaphor??? Yup, he spent ALL the capital. In fact he did what he imagined his father did: he squandered it. Wasted it.
The weight of his ego alone makes it difficult to stand erect... Neanderthal.
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