Sunday, January 16, 2005

PRES. BUSH TOLD THE WASHINGTON POST that "the public's decision to reelect him was a ratification of his approach toward Iraq and that there was no reason to hold any administration officials accountable for mistakes or misjudgments in prewar planning or managing the violent aftermath."

"We had an accountability moment, and that's called the 2004 elections," Bush said. ... "The American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me."

Mind you, Bush is not saying that no mistakes or misjudgments in prewar planning or managing the Occupation were made. He is saying something much worse than that. He is saying that he and his administration are not accountable for any mistakes made -- simply because he won the 2004 election.

Bush won the election with 51% of the electoral vote -- so presumably that means when he refers to "the public's decision to reelect" him, he is only including half of the voters in his definition of "the public." And, by implication, that must mean Bush does not feel himself to be accountable to the 49% of the voters who voted for Kerry or one of the other candidates.

Which is odd, because in the same interview Bush, after admitting to being "puzzled" that only 11% of the black vote went to him, said, "I did my best to reach out, and I will continue to do so as the president. ... It's important for people to know that I'm the president of everybody."

Let's set aside for the moment the cluelessness of Bush being "puzzled" about why most black voters did not vote for him. Let's just focus on that statement, "It's important for people to know that I'm the president of everybody." If Bush considers himself the president of "everybody," including African-Americans, who are about 12.9% of the U.S. population, then it's startling to realize that he does NOT consider himself the president of the 49% of the overall voting population who did not vote for him, and who thus did not ratify his Iraq policies.

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