I think I just crapped my pants..Did Bush Actually say I'll take responsibility for the Gov't slow response?!

I know it's a small caveat on his part...tiny...miniscule. I am still in shock that he is admitting responsibility.


Bush Takes Responsibility for Blunders
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer

Tuesday, September 13, 2005


(09-13) 09:46 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --


President Bush said Tuesday that "I take responsibility" for failures in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and said the disaster raised broader questions about the government's ability to respond to natural disasters as well as terror attacks.


"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government," Bush said at joint White House news conference with the president of Iraq.


"To the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush said.


The president was asked whether people should be worried about the government's ability to handle another terrorist attack given failures in responding to Katrina.


"Are we capable of dealing with a severe attack? That's a very important question and it's in the national interest that we find out what went on so we can better respond," Bush replied.


He said he wanted to know both what went wrong and what went right.


As for blunders in the federal response, "I'm not going to defend the process going in," Bush said. "I am going to defend the people saving lives."


He praised relief workers at all levels. "I want people in America to understand how hard people worked to save lives down there," he said.


Bush spoke after R. David Paulison, the new acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, pledged to intensify efforts to find more permanent housing for the tens of thousands of Hurricane Katrina survivors now in shelters.


It was the closest Bush has come to publicly finding fault with any federal officials involved in the hurricane response, which has been widely criticized as disjointed and slow. Some federal officials have sought to fault state and local officials for being unprepared to cope with the disaster.


Bush planned to address the nation Thursday evening from Louisiana, where he will be monitoring recovery efforts, the White House announced earlier Tuesday.


Paulison, in his first public comments since taking the job on Monday, told reporters: "We're going to get those people out of the shelters, and we're going to move and get them the help they need."


Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff introduced Paulison as the Bush administration tried to deflect criticism for the sluggish initial federal response to the hurricane and its disastrous aftermath.


Chertoff said that while cleanup, relief and reconstruction from Katrina is now the government's top priority, the administration would not let down its guard on other potential dangers.


"The world is not going to stop moving because we are very focused on Katrina," Chertoff said.


Paulison, named to the post on Monday, said he was busy "getting brought up to speed."


He replaced Michael Brown, who resigned on Monday, three days after being removed from being the top onsite federal official in charge of the government's response.


Paulison said Bush called him Monday night and "thanked me for coming on board."


Bush promised that he would have "the full support of the federal government," Paulison said.


more...

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin...358D94.DTL

He must be running scared to actually admit failure or that he was wrong. He has never done any such thing in the last 5 years. Also, if you look at the fact that he put Cheney on the ground, these guys need PR help.

Katrina simply popped the boil that had been festering in this country for years

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

He must be running scared to actually admit failure or that he was wrong. He has never done any such thing in the last 5 years. Also, if you look at the fact that he put Cheney on the ground, these guys need PR help.

Katrina simply popped the boil that had been festering in this country for years

Even though it popped, now we have to focus on healing everything else.

He's just trying to save his approval ratings If he had an honest bone in his body he could have never uttered the words, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job!"

PR ploy!


it took his approval rating to drop below 40% for him to admit failure.

many people f'd up on this; it goes far beyond this administration. i'm glad bush is finally taking responsibility for his involvement (or lack thereof) in the mess. that said, there is no "acceptable" course of action for the president to take. if he didn't take responsibility people would say he is misplacing and skirting blame. now that he has stepped up and taken responsibility people will say/are saying its for PR and approval reasons.

truthfully, there are many people responsible for what happened with this hurricane. the past three administrations knew what could (and eventually would) happen with a major hurricane yet nothing was done. the governor of the state failed her citizens in numerous ways. the mayor has certainly done well placing blame while managing to ignore anything he could have done (differently). there are too many people that could have been involved in a more efficient way to place 100% of the responsibility on the president. i think he did the right thing, however, by putting an end to the very public finger pointing game that has been going on.

unfortunately it is too little, too late. the damage has been done and, quite frankly, i think it is irreversible. this country will feel the effects of "katrina" for quite some time now.

CalhounSq said:

He's just trying to save his approval ratings If he had an honest bone in his body he could have never uttered the words, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job!"

SassyBritches said:

Holy crap, talk about "damned if you do..."

I thought you guys wanted him to step up and claim some responsibility. Now you think it's all about approval ratings? Do you want better late than never or not?

1313 said:

Holy crap, talk about "damned if you do..."

I thought you guys wanted him to step up and claim some responsibility. Now you think it's all about approval ratings? Do you want better late than never or not?

Rhondab said:

1313 said:

Holy crap, talk about "damned if you do..."

I thought you guys wanted him to step up and claim some responsibility. Now you think it's all about approval ratings? Do you want better late than never or not?

yeah...but aren't you the one saying Bush isn't to blame....

This is ingenious, IMO. Bush FINALLY has found himself in a situation that can't be spun, couched, equivocated or hidden by smoke-in-mirror concocted nonissues because we saw the entire thing played out before our eyes.

The pressure would have mounted to a critical breaking point had he not taken responsibility, and simply by offering a "my bad," he's now taken enough steam out of the pot to shut people up -- or at least reinvigorate an all-forgiving support base that was ready to turn on his ass.

Brilliant!

...Some advisor seriously deserves a pay raise and a blowjob for suggesting this one.

Lammastide said:

1313 said:

Lammastide said:

This is ingenious, IMO. Bush FINALLY has found himself in a situation that can't be spun, couched, equivocated or hidden by smoke-in-mirror concocted nonissues because we saw the entire thing played out before our eyes.

The pressure would have mounted to a critical breaking point had he not taken responsibility, and simply by offering a "my bad," he's now taken enough steam out of the pot to shut people up -- or at least reinvigorate an all-forgiving support base that was ready to turn on his ass.

Brilliant!

...Some advisor seriously deserves a pay raise and a blowjob for suggesting this one.

You really think this will take the heat off of him?

The left will never let that happen.

Flashpointe said:

1313 said:

You really think this will take the heat off of him?

The left will never let that happen.

Nope! We sure won't! Bush needs to resign.

I can see where this is heading already

$$$$$

1313 said:

1313 said:

Lammastide said:

This is ingenious, IMO. Bush FINALLY has found himself in a situation that can't be spun, couched, equivocated or hidden by smoke-in-mirror concocted nonissues because we saw the entire thing played out before our eyes.

The pressure would have mounted to a critical breaking point had he not taken responsibility, and simply by offering a "my bad," he's now taken enough steam out of the pot to shut people up -- or at least reinvigorate an all-forgiving support base that was ready to turn on his ass.

Brilliant!

...Some advisor seriously deserves a pay raise and a blowjob for suggesting this one.

You really think this will take the heat off of him?

The left will never let that happen.

Rhondab said:

1313 said:

You really think this will take the heat off of him?

The left will never let that happen.

you are really stuck.....everything is either left or right with you huh...lawdy....

1313 said:

1313 said:

Lammastide said:

This is ingenious, IMO. Bush FINALLY has found himself in a situation that can't be spun, couched, equivocated or hidden by smoke-in-mirror concocted nonissues because we saw the entire thing played out before our eyes.

The pressure would have mounted to a critical breaking point had he not taken responsibility, and simply by offering a "my bad," he's now taken enough steam out of the pot to shut people up -- or at least reinvigorate an all-forgiving support base that was ready to turn on his ass.

Brilliant!

...Some advisor seriously deserves a pay raise and a blowjob for suggesting this one.

You really think this will take the heat off of him?

The left will never let that happen.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

1313 said:

Because that's how it is. How much balance do you see on this issue?

If you had a show dealing with the holocaust, you don't give airtime to folks who believe it never happened to show that you are "fair and balanced". That is lunacy. At the end of the day when the local and state officials are not either prepared to handle such a disaster or unable to, either through incompetence or the sheer size of the disaster, the federal government is supposed to be there to protect American citizens. Wasn't that one of Bush's main talking points in the last election, that he could protect Americans better than Kerry? Well here was a grand opportunity to do that on American soil, not the middle east, and he failed. It doesn't get much simpler than that

1313 said:

SassyBritches said:

1313 said:

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

If you had a show dealing with the holocaust, you don't give airtime to folks who believe it never happened to show that you are "fair and balanced". That is lunacy. At the end of the day when the local and state officials are not either prepared to handle such a disaster or unable to, either through incompetence or the sheer size of the disaster, the federal government is supposed to be there to protect American citizens. Wasn't that one of Bush's main talking points in the last election, that he could protect Americans better than Kerry? Well here was a grand opportunity to do that on American soil, not the middle east, and he failed. It doesn't get much simpler than that

Wow, nice to know everyone one else who failed gets off and moves on in life.

By the way, your holocuast comparison is B-A-N-A-N-A-S

Rhondab said:

1313 said:

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said: