Bush defends his ‘relevance’ at press conference

October 17, 2007

In April 1995, President Clinton hosted a primetime press conference in the midst of a difficult time. Republicans had just taken the majorities of the House and Senate, and House Speaker Newt Gingrich had taken to thinking he was some kind of Prime Minister, setting the national political agenda. A reporter asked the president if he felt like the Republicans were dominating the political landscape.

“The president is still relevant here,” Clinton said.

It was an unfortunate choice of words, which immediately appeared on the front pages the next morning: “Clinton says he’s ‘still relevant.'”

Twelve years later, another president hosted another press conference, not too long after the opposition party took control of both chambers of Congress — and he decided to use the same word.

“Sometimes the legislative branch wants to go on without the President, pass pieces of legislation, and the President then can use the veto to make sure he’s a part of the process. And that’s — as you know, I fully intend to do.

“I want to make sure — and that’s why, when I tell you I’m going to sprint to the finish, and finish this job strong, that’s one way to ensure that I am relevant; that’s one way to sure that I am in the process.”

To me, it was at least as sad, if not more so, than the line from 1995. Bush was not only trying to defend his relevance, he was arguing that his veto pen alone made him significant in the process. He’s not helping establish an agenda; he’s just the guy at the other end, waiting to say what he doesn’t like.

A reporter followed up a minute or so later.

Q Do you feel as if you’re — do you feel as if you’re losing leverage, and that you’re becoming increasingly irrelevant? And what can you do about that to —

THE PRESIDENT: Quite the contrary. I’ve never felt more engaged and more capable of helping people recognize — American people recognize that there’s a lot of unfinished business. And I’m really looking forward to the next 15 months. I’m looking forward to getting some things done for the American people. And if it doesn’t get done, I’m looking forward to reminding people as to why it’s not getting done.

Really? Never more “engaged”? Never more “capable”?

Noting the president’s 24% approval rating, Dan Froomkin responded, “[L]et’s be blunt, [that’s] hard to believe.”

Post Script: By the way, he was kidding, but I found this unpleasant.

Q: Mr. President, following up on Vladimir Putin for a moment. He said recently that next year when he has to step down, according to the constitution, as President, he may become Prime Minister, in effect keeping power and dashing any hopes for a genuine democratic transition there. Senator McCain —

BUSH: I’ve been planning that myself. (Laughter.)

Not funny. Really, not at all.

Bush is as relevant as a boil on the ass.

  • No matter your personal view of Clinton at least he could string a dozen words together and sound intelligent. I must admit that whenever Dubya’s voice comes over the airwaves, I have to change the channel no matter what he’s talking about. It is painful to listen to him.

  • My personal fave was:

    “One of Congress’ basic duties is to fund the day-to-day operations of the federal government. Yet Congress has not sent me a single appropriations bill,”

    Of cours ehe never complained when the Republican controlled Congress never managed to pass appropriations legislation. 460 days and counting

  • W has a long history of believing that his ability to throw a tantrum is what gets him attention. That comment about the veto keeping him ‘in the process’ is only the latest example of that.

    Signing the bill would have kept him in the process, too.

  • “Not funny. Really, not at all.”

    Oh, what’s not funny about?

    Oh sure, establishing a dictatorship is the wet dream of this administration, and the White House has been expanding its power over the past six years, and we’re just one terrorist attack here in the US away from Bush declaring martial law, with his own private Schutzstaffel- I mean Blackwater on its way back from Iraq, but that doesn’t mean he can’t crack jokes about it, right?

  • Do any of you other parents remember when your toddler learned the word “no”? At the time the toddler overuses it because it’s their only way of asserting themselves. Most toddlers eventually learn to assert themselves through something other than simple negation.

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  • Clinton was commenting on Presidential relevancy in the third person while Bush was commenting on relevancy in the first. Thus, for Bush its about himself while for Clinton it was about the institution.

    Big difference.

  • Oh, God.
    Cringeworthy moment right there.
    Not only is W irrelevent, his humour is completely redundant.

  • Bill Clinton should be cut some slack for his unfortunate choice of words–unfortunate only in hindsight, that is. Not only did he say that the presidency (rather than he himself) was still relevant, but for all his policy mistakes, perhaps Clinton’s greatest accomplishment as president was holding the radical right at bay. After six years in which the radical right has controlled all three branches of the federal government, that is nothing to dismiss lightly.

    But Bush should be cut no slack at all. So he cut off nearly ten million children from the medical care they need just so he could show he was relevant? No wonder he never meets with the public, except with carefully screened crowds of loyal Bushies. How would he explain to a sick child, or a sick child’s parents, that they must sacrifice the child’s health, or life, in order to maintain his relevancy?

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