The Delphic Pud

From 2Millionth Web Log

Trying to distill the essence of George W. Bush's particular shallowness is, well, hard work...so instead, I'll just cite some direct quotes and let you, the reader, come to your own conclusions:

"I'm sorry [the financial crisis is] happening, of course. Obviously I don't like the idea of people losing jobs, or being worried about their 401(k)s. On the other hand, the American people got to know that we will safeguard the system. I mean, we're in. And if we need to be in more, we will."

...

"A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein...That's not a do-over, but I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess."

...

Asked if he would have ordered the U.S.-led invasion if intelligence reports had accurately indicated that Saddam did not have the weapons, Bush replied: "You know, that's an interesting question. That is a do-over that I can't do. It's hard for me to speculate."

...

"I think when the history of this period is written, people will realize a lot of the decisions that were made on Wall Street took place over a decade or so" before he became president.

...

"It is hard for the average citizen to understand how frozen the system became and how over-leveraged the system became," Bush said. "And so what we're watching is the de-leveraging of our financial markets, which is obviously affecting the growth of the economy."

...

"This economy will recover," Bush said in the interview conducted last Wednesday at the Camp David, Md., presidential retreat. "And when it recovers, many of the assets backed by the government now will be redeemed, and we will — could conceivably — make money off of some of the holdings."

Later in the interview, he said: "I can't guarantee that we'll get all our money back, but it's conceivable we could."

Too bad we can't get the last eight years back.