Charles Gibson is a terrible interviewer. That includes his interview with Obama and his GOTCHA question to Palin. I hope the others do better, Gibson should have asked the simple question "WHY: after each of Bush's preposterous answers. I would like to ask Bush one question. "WHY DID YOU GO AFTER SADAM WITH SHOCK AND AWE, INSTEAD OF OSAMA"? OF Course nobody will ever get that opportunity

Mister G'Mornin' America

Mister Maxwell House Lite?

Hell

He'll delve out the real story

And set shit to right...

How can this man claim the Iraq war was the biggest intelligence failure in his term? The biggest intelligence failure in his career was 9/11, which was preceded by an avalanche of intelligence he and his tragically incompetent "National Security Adviser," Condi Rice, chose to ignore. Who can forget her famously stupid, "who could have ever predicted this would happen?" comment? (Uh, CIA? FBI? Hollywood?!!) Bush and his team utterly refuse to recognize that 9/11 was preventable, and he will NEVER admit that a Gore presidency--which would have kept people like Al Qaeda expert Richard Clarke in place--likely would have stopped it.

This man is a master at self-deception and delusion, and likely the shallowest person ever to claim that office. I genuinely feel that he really cannot see his own mistakes. Throughout his life Bush has surrounded himself with sycophants whose incompetence is outstripped only by their partisan arrogance. We paid the price.

George Bush is a liar, a coward, a dictator wannabe, a lawbreaker, a Constitution shredder, a torturer, and a mass murderer, to name but a few things. He allowed our economy to tank under deregulation and a lack of supervision in regards to the laws and rules still on the books; his policies have resulted the worst recession (and a possible depression) we've had since the Great Depression. The environmental laws this administration has rewritten, and is now rewriting, make them worse than criminals: they will be responsible for poisoning our country's population, despoiling our nation's land, air, and water, and killing our endangered species on a scale unseen since environmental protection began (59 species added to the ESL, all under legal challenges, is unconscienable). The crimes of this man and his administration are legion.

Bush, however, still thinks history will vindicate him. As this interview shows, he is absolutely DELUSIONAL.

Somebody call a WAHmbulance: other people messed up Georgie's presidency. So sad for him.

My favorite part is "…but I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess."

He guesses?

He wasn't prepared for a war that has killed thousands, wounded thousands more --- and continues to do both --- and he guesses that he wishes the intelligence had been different?!

A couple more questions, then I'll go:

Is English this guy's first language?

and

Is it possible for him to give less of a shit?

George W. Bush will go down in history as a Putsch puppet in the hands of Cheney and Rove in the attempt by a Conservative cabal to overthrow the democratic government, a marionette whose strings were pulled by neoNazis. The use of fear, hysteria based on lies, innuendo, then accusations of unpatriotic thoughts, racial and cultural superiority, and the anointing by a superior culture based on a Christian foundation completes the ideological picture.

The fact that there is a core of Christian subversives who willingly fall for this myth is no different from the more educated German population of the 1930's. Those that knew the truth were systematically removed from influence until liberal and democratic became terms of derision.

We did not elect a black man to replace this disgrace in the White House. Any Democrat with a sense of public responsibility and the intelligence to be immunized from the virtual reality of political lure would have been elected. Luckily the minority, the sectarian. the educated, and hopefully the honest independent will serve all the people through whatever crises all the people will face together.

Are you aware that your entire posting is irrational and

invalid with its sheaves of useless, cherrypicked references?

It is deeply insulting,not only to Ms.Walsh, but to us,the

readers, who have to wipe their feet after slogging through

your filth!!! Please crawl away.

I do not remember those WMD's failing out of Saddam when he was swinging from the rope. Did I miss something?

Seriously, yes or no, did Saddam have WMD’s? The answer is yes. The toxicology reports are available on the Iranians and Kurds he killed. He played a game with the weapons inspectors by being evasive and disingenuous when they tried to verify if he did or did not have WMD’s. So if he did not have them, why did not Saddam go to the United Nations and prove his case against America rather than hide in his spider hole?

Some wonder why he did not use WMD’s during the 1991 Gulf War. The doctrine of the United States of America is to not use WMD’s first, but use them in retaliation if the enemy uses them first. Ever wonder why we had all those nuclear capable submarines in the Red Sea and other waters near Iraq? Saddam knew if he used chemical or biological agents he would have been nuked.

I served in three foreign conflicts and I was not ready for war! So I will cut President Bush a break and hope to God President- elect Obama does not have to answer the question if he is ready for war.

Remember 2003 was then the time

Why in the fuck did they not materialize

After the U.S. came on invadin'

To the scene of the alleged WMD crime

So what's the deal

Ghost 'o the king

What fresh bullshit

Do you

The king

Have to the table

To bring..?

Ain't no "foreign service" to me

If you're a blind stupid ass Jar Head

Then be that

In sweet tranquil serenity

Who can forget [Rice's] famously stupid, "who could have ever predicted this would happen?" comment? ... Bush and his team utterly refuse to recognize that 9/11 was preventable ...

Amen and hallelujah.

But I will go a step further, even though I realize that this is beating a lonely drum in the Salon letters (and especially with Joan Walsh).

It's not just George Bush who tells himself (as another letter writer put it) what he wishes were true, rather than what really happened. The phrase "no one could have expected nine eleven" has become generally accepted as the truth even by liberals, for reasons which are dangerous and unpleasant to consider but must be faced.

It's the nature of authoritarian troglodytes in all societies at all times in history to want to overturn social order and replace it with a cult of naked power based on fear. People like Bush happen, they aren't mysterious or strange or shocking or unexpected — it just takes a certain basic level of wisdom to identify the threat they represent.

A functioning liberal society establishes, and maintains, protections from people like Bush achieving power. The real problem facing the American republic is not that Bush came along or that there were people who supported him. The real problem is that, when he inevitably did, those protections failed.

So long as otherwise well-meaning liberals are unwilling to face that fact, or grapple with the unpleasant question of why it happened, we — and our world — will remain in acute danger.

"No one could have predicted nine eleven" is what we all say, not just Bush, in order to avoid having to face that grim fact. But Bush's failures are easy to understand and, unfortunately, beside the point.

It's absolutely essential that we understand why we failed. And however commendable they might be, merely putting Obama in the White House, and looking critically at Bush, are not enough.