pudge's Journal: Mistakes

A lot of people say as one of their main reasons for being against Bush is that, in the words of George Soros, he "doesn't recognize his mistakes."

Yet, Bush has admitted mistakes, in Iraq and elsewhere. And, Bush has said on occasions when he has not mentioned specific mistakes, that he is confident he has made mistakes. So we know it is false to say he does not admit mistakes, that he thinks he makes no mistakes, etc.

This whole thing is a set-up. If Bush admits his mistakes in public, people jump all over him for them. If he doesn't, people jump all over him for it. So he plays the safer political card and doesn't say anything. You may not like it, but you're part of the problem causing it, so shut up.

It's a non-issue. It's pure politics. And what bugs me about it is that people are talking about it like it is something that has relevance, when it is a pure smokescreen.

It is the question he can't answer straight up.

[John Harrison]

These questions about mistakes are "gotcha" questions. No matter what the response your opponent is going to make hay from it. I thought that his response of letting the historians sort it out was a good one.

That said, if you were making such a list, the list of mistakes is long enough and serious enough it is hard to know where to start...

Re:It is the question he can't answer straight up.

[pudge]

Yes, it is a gotcha. It's a no-win question, no matter who is President, unless you're someone like Clinton or Reagan who can answer a gotcha with wit and grace.

Turning the Tables

[scupper]

You nailed it. The irony is if you turn the tables, turn similiar questions on Kerry, you don't that great a difference in response, and based on the record of being a United States Senator for 2 + decades, a position as powerful, influencial and prestigious as being an Ambassador, a state Governor or Supreme Court judge, it's curious that he seems to completely disassociate himself from both his own record of voting, and in general, where the Congress has led the United States during the last 20 + years.