‘It’s bad in Iraq. Does that help?’

December 7, 2006

There were a few interesting moments in today’s joint Bush-Blair press conference, but there was one exchange that stood out.

Q: Mr. President, the Iraq Study Group described the situation in Iraq as “grave and deteriorating.” You said that the increase in attacks is “unsettling.” That won’t convince many people that you’re still in denial about how bad things are in Iraq, and question your sincerity about changing course.

PRESIDENT BUSH: It’s bad in Iraq. (extremely long pause) Does that help? (Laughter.)

Q: Why did it take others to say it before you’ve been willing to acknowledge for the world —

PRESIDENT BUSH: In all due respect, I’ve been saying it a lot. I understand how tough it is. And I’ve been telling the American people how tough it is.

Now, I pay pretty close attention to what the president has to say, and I’m hard pressed to think of any times Bush has acknowledged that “it’s bad in Iraq” publicly, better yet hearing this “a lot.”

For that matter, Nico noted that as recently as late October, Bush said we’re “absolutely” winning the war in Iraq, which came only a week after Dick Cheney inexplicably said the “general overall situation” in Iraq was going “remarkably well.”

With this in mind, I thought I’d help answer the president’s question — no, it doesn’t help.

The most trouble part of this exchange, I think, is the laughter that follows Bush’s statement.

  • I agree, Dan. Do the people around the President, including the White House press, lead such insulated lives that they can laugh whenever he seems to invite it? That makes me more angry than anything else, I think–that it’s just about Bush, and to some extent it’s a joke. “No WMDs here. . .”

  • Let’s face it, for Cock Boy to actually admit to a reporter that Iraq is bad is a glorious day in its self. I mean now we can not ‘stay the course’, right ??

    I can’t wait for TDS to whip out that exchange and flash back to mission accomplished, then Stewart say something ridiculously funny.

    No wonder we haven’t seen Cheney or Rove in a month.

    That one phrase “It’s bad in Iraq” has just squashed every talking point we have heard the past four years. No more, the wind is gone and the sails are a flappin’ in the wind.

  • CB you said…… Now, I pay pretty close attention to what the president has to say, and I’m hard pressed to think of any times Bush has acknowledged that “it’s bad in Iraq” publicly, better yet hearing this “a lot.”

    Since when does this administration need to check “what they have said before”? We just have to listen to the here and now and forget what they said last week. It will be much easier to follow once the lead is back in the gasoline.

  • I’m sure the ten families that lost a loved one yesterday in Iraq were just doubled over in laughter at that joke.

  • the wind is gone and the sails are a flappin’ in the wind.
    ————————-ScottW

    Now, Scott—I’m not trying to pick on you about sails flapping in a wind that isn’t there—but your comment strikes me as the perfect simile for Bush. Just change the words a wee bit, and you’ve got:

    “There’s no good news from Iraq and the Bush Administration is rejoicing in the good news from Iraq.”

    I guess Santa won’t be stopping at the White House this year….

  • Now, I pay pretty close attention to what the president has to say, and I’m hard pressed to think of any times Bush has acknowledged that “it’s bad in Iraq” publicly, better yet hearing this “a lot.” — CB

    “bad” and “tough” aren’t synonyms. For example, some people will recommend “tough love” in child-rearing, but how many will recommend “bad love”?

    I’ve not been keeping track of what Dumbya has said over the years (can’t stand the SOB and, besides, though my memory is very good, it doesn’t last too long) but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that he’s been saying “it’s tough out there” quite a lot.

    “It’s tough, but we’ll overcome it if we stay the course” is entirely consistent with his “message”. Saying “it’s tough” makes “staying the course” that much more … I don’t know… Valuable? Remarkable? Noble? And yet, the overal import of the sentence would be up-beat (overcome) and pound in the “stay the course” some more into the national consciousness.

    Sorry. If TAIO can admit to geekiness, I guess I can admit to having been trained as a linguist once upon a time 🙂

  • Thanks Libra. I think you’re right about Bush finding a way to compliment himself with words like tough and bad. If it’s tough, that means he’s tougher. If it’s bad then he’s the Improver. He’s got an anti-Babelfish in his ear and everything that comes in negative get prettified before it hits his brain.

    When the going gets tough, the tough get bicycling.

  • If we convinced Bush that many of the fighters in Iraq were pregnant women, and shooting them might cause a spontanious mis-carriage (read abortion), that they would stop the fighting?
    Bush and his ilk have an ongoing passion for the unborn, they just don’t care about humans once they have been born.
    Let’s flash some pictures of dead & dismembered kids to Bush and the press corps & wait for the laughter.

  • Steve see parentheses. “the wind (bolstering about how great Iraq is) is gone and the sails are a flappin’ (jaws flapping about Iraq is bad, hence the laughing) in the wind”.

    Damn brotha, it wasn’t like I sat down for 20 mins and thought it out. Flapping sails happen when there is zero wind, but I see your point. I just like the flappin’ part I guess. Oh well, put it down as Bush logic and we will be square.

  • Flapping sails happen when there is zero wind

    And flapping jaws occur when there is zero brain.

    I second Dan’s comment at #1. Yeah, carnage is funn-ee muthafucka.

    I’d add that if the situation in Iraq is merely “bad,” (or a “comma”) then by comparison Sept. 11th is an event of such utter insignifigance that the very mention of that date should cause us all to yawn until our heads split. It certainly wouldn’t merit lying to start a war. It might call into question the decision to invade Afghanistan.

    I’m not trying to out-geek libra (well…) but I read his trite little comment and thought this is yet another reason any good will or sympathy the world had for us after the attack has turned to disdain and loathing. I’m sure the citizens of any nation that endured a real war in living memory must think we’re a bunch of whining pussies and calling the situation in Iraq “bad” (and then laughing) makes us look like callous whining pussies. Yes, Sept. 11th was an awful day but it was one damn day, a few hours of one day in one part of a very large country.

    Compare that to say, any World War you care to name. Hell, if the rest of Europe followed the US’s example they’d still be kicking the shit out of Germany and screaming like babies. And yet to Prezint Bush, the daily, violent death has been the constant theme in Iraq for three years and counting (thanks entirely to him and his cronies) is merely “bad” or perhaps “tough.” Is he too stupid to come up with a more descriptive term, too inarticulate to pronounce a word with more than one syllable, or so evil he really does think the situation in Iraq is merely “bad”?

    On second thoughts, who cares, how can we get rid of this turd?

  • The quote of the reporter’s question was changed by the White House. It should read: “That will convince many people that you’re still in denial about how bad things are in Iraq, and question your sincerity about changing course”. (not won’t) (from londonbear’s diary at dailykos).

  • Those “laughs” came from the lapdog Yank reporters, as they were embarrassed by the British reporter’s knife-to-the-heart question to Junior, and it was a simple case of “rally to our preznit’s side when he’s getting crucified by a nasty foreigner”.

  • The “national embarrassment” is the idea that a sitting President of the United States—not a “former” President, but a currently-serving President—would demonstrate the intrinsic need to crack jokes about this issue.

    And the Reich bloggers bemoan the inability of liberals and progressives to “show the respect accorded the office of the Presidency?”

    I will consider “showing the respect accorded” immediately after “Zippy the Pinhead” has been removed from that once-worthy-of-respect Office.

    And not a moment earlier.

    As for “jaws flapping,” we could consider it “a Bonzo Moment” (and you’ve been wondering for all these years about whatever happened to Ronald Reagan’s big-screen co-star. The animatronics team at Disney stuffed him—put in a few gears and a servo or two—and made him into a “world leadah”)….

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