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Not only is it a hollow, trivial sacrifice at best, Bush's story doesn't hold water. While he dates his decision to abjure golf to Aug. 19, 2003 -- the day a truck bomb in Baghdad killed U.N. special representative Sergio Vieira de Mello and more than a dozen others -- the Associated Press reported on Oct. 13, 2003, that he'd spent a "cool, breezy Columbus Day" playing "a round of golf with three long-time buddies.
Amazing how childlike and out of touch he is. His parents act in much the same way detached and oblivious. Amazing.
so looking forward to the end of the nightmare.
Pretty blistering considering that Dallek isn't a partisan. He's one of those objective historians like Kearns-Goodwin or Michael Beschloss.
Even Golfing Bloggers have a better idea of what constitutes a real interview:
William K. Wolfrum blogs for worldgolf.com: "In an insipid interview with the web site Politico that featured no less than 20 questions about his daughter's wedding, baseball, American Idol and who does the best impersonation of him, President George W. Bush was hit with a haymaker - Has he stopped golfing? . . .
"Bush has spent more time on vacation than any other president. . . . He's never attended a slain soldier's funeral. He's spent time fishing and endlessly clearing brush on his ranch, and attending his daughter's lavish wedding, among other things. But golf? Well, that would just send the wrong signal to the thousands killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and their families.
"War supporters take note - put away your golf clubs. It's just disrespectful."
You can say a lot of bad things about LBJ's decisions, but all historians agree that committing the country to continued war just tore his guts out.
Bush, not so much....
The only really critical question came from a reader, who asked: "Do you feel that you were misled on Iraq?" Bush predictably ducked it.
Here are some of Allen's own questions:
"Mr. President, I know you're going to hate this, but I'm hoping that we may twist your arm and talk about baseball for just a moment. (Laughter.) Mr. President, you're a Major League Baseball team owner again. Everyone is a free agent. You have a Yankees-like wallet. Who is your first position player? Who's your pitcher?"
"Now, Mr. President, you and the First Lady appeared on American Idol's charity show, 'Idol Gives Back.' And I wonder who do you think is going to win? Syesha, David Cook, or David Archuleta?"
"All right. Mr. President, who does the better impression, Will Ferrell of you, or Dana Carvey of your father?"
"And speaking of impressions, our friend, Robert Draper, author of 'Dead Certain,' said you do a great impression of Dr. Evil from 'Austin Powers'."
Republico's Mike Allen is the Neil Cavuto of the blogosphere.
The news media's failure to report that the arms captured from Shiite militiamen in Karbala did not include a single Iranian weapon shielded the US military from a much bigger blow to its anti-Iran strategy.
The Bush administration and top Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus had plotted a sequence of events that would build domestic US political support for a possible strike against Iran over its "meddling" in Iraq and especially its alleged export of arms to Shiite militias.
(if they had any BALLS at all, Patreaus would NOT be confirmed to head CENTCOM, I think the hearing is today.)
More and more people are talking armed revolution. Perhaps that is what it's going to take as people are more and more frustrated and debilitated by what is going on in this country.
Idiot America elects Idiot Preznits.
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There is just a kind of disconnect with Bush that I always have found frightening. It's like fractured thinking....abstract. He constantly in statements connects things that are imprecise, don't belong together, and just plain don't make sense and most often are incomplete. Like someone who starts a sentence as if you had been talking about it all along.
"they pulled me off the golf course, and and I said, it's just not worth it anymore to do."
As if up to that point it WAS "worth it to do" as if it had some connection. (all remember "...now watch this shot"?) It also screams of "magical thinking", as if the person killed somehow was intertwined with him playing golf.
Also not, he doesn't say "and I decided" as a normal person would, he says "and I said", is if the saying was the doing?
Off and on I have run into people that speak like this, and it always makes me wary of the person.
(One could also add that he got killed as a result of Bush's war, but we won't go there.)
I think our key 'out' is to blame the whole thing on Billary. If Obama loses to McCain, it is crucial that we blame the loss on Hillary and her sleazy husband. Hatred for the corrupt Clintons is one of the few things we have in common with the Republicans and scapegoating them for a possible loss will keep the DNC reputation clean.
My son and I have discussed purchasing a pistol--he's that worried about my well-being since I'm home alone so much, and he's afraid some pillhead will break in on me. And I don't like the idea of a gun in the house, but if it comes to self-defense, I'd have no problem using it. I already keep a stout 2 in thick, 3-1/2 ft. wooden stick next to the door. When 4 houses right on your short block have been broken into already, it tends to make you wary...and I'm basically a non-violent person, but you can't argue with someone on the horrible dope that's being peddled these days.
So yes, the fear is even starting to affect someone like me, a usually rational person, but one who keeps her radar on 24/7 these days.
First off, a gun...are you really ready to shoot someone if needed? My own experience, when you have a gun, anything seems like a reason to get it out, and it can spook some people more than not having one. Plus, can be stolen, taken from you and used against you...
The buildup of fear also will color all interactions with others. In a way, the expectation of confrontation...crazed junkies, etc. can make the outcome happen that you fear most. Treat people as I am sure you have already, human beings, if someone breaks in, get out. Have they been night burglaries, or daytime, and have they been when there were folks home?
It's not me that's so much afraid--it's people who are afraid FOR me, since I'm aging, a small person, and they don't believe I could really defend myself (and I don't know either since the occasion has never really come up). But believe me, I am aware of my surroundings--some of the criminal acts I've heard about just make no sense whatsoever, and when crime is senseless, even treating the other as a human being has absolutely no effect. There was a 92 yr old woman, returning from church, who was shot on her doorstep for her purse by a 19 yr old predator, in a quiet neighborhood in Charlotte about 2 weeks ago. This is the kind of senseless crime I'm talking about. The elderly are seen as weak, and perfect victims.
Getting back to your original point, I don't think we have seen the worst yet. High unemployment, energy costs forcing people to steal gas is on the rise, continue spewing of hate and division by the politicians, the despair in our young people in finding jobs, lack of accountability on the part of corporations and politicians, heads of families unemployed and losing homes. This is a recipe for rebellion on the part of the poor and needy and while I don't condone stealing, mugging and crime it is perhaps understandable, not acceptable, but understandable. Where better to get a few bucks but from the old and defenseless. My mother lived in an apartment building and there was a tenant murdered in the entranceway. She never left the building for 3 months she was so afraid.
1. The over four thousand soldiers who have died in Iraq, the 45,000 plus seriously injured and their families.
2. The millions of displaced Iraqi families and the tens if not hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed in King George's ill conceived and unnecessary war in Iraq.
3. The tens of thousands of minority and poor residents of New Orleans bused away after Katrina with little hope of every returning home. The thousands of families who were returned only to be put in toxic trailers.
4. The millions of American families who have become impoverished through those enlightened fiscal policies that have given so much to the richest families and corporations of this country.
5. The millions of children and families who have joined the ranks of the uninsured due to the compassionate conservatism of the Republicans.
6. The 300 plus million US citizens who have watched their civil liberties diminished, their security lessened and the once proud reputation of their country tarnished.
Prepare for the Coup d'etat of 2008.
Okay, not a certainty but I'd give it about 85 to 90% probability.
Froomkin pointed out the softball questions, but the answers were more revealing than with a hardball questioner.