Forget ‘The Decider,’ now he’s ‘The Decision-Maker’

January 26, 2007

One wants to assume the president is at least vaguely aware of the embarrassing comments that open him to such extensive ridicule, but if Bush realizes it, he doesn’t act like it.

Back in April, after explaining that he “hears the voices,” the president said he would stick with Donald Rumsfeld as the Secretary of Defense because, as Bush put it, he’s “the decider.” The video of the comment continues to draw laughs.

But we can forget about that now. Bush is no longer “The Decider”; now he’s “The Decision-Maker.” (TP has the video clip)

“Uh, one of the things I found in Congress is that most people recognize that failure [in Iraq] would be a disaster for the United States, and, uh, I’m the decision-maker. I had to come up with a way forward that precluded disaster.”

Just keep on talking, Mr. President. We’ll see those approval ratings drop into the teens in no time at all.

Different shade of lipstick, same pig.

  • My thoughts:

    “I’m the decision-maker”

    — I guess this is like he is the uniter?

    “I’ve picked the plan that I think is most likely to succeed,”
    “Some are condeming a plan before it’s even had a chance to work,”

    — He hasn’t done anything that has worked yet – why is this time different – especially when this plan doesn’t seem like anything that hasn’t been tried in the past?

    Could this man be any less serious?

  • This man has never come up with a plan about anything that ever worked on any subject from the day he decided to kill frogs with cherry bombs at age 4 (and probably failed at every decision before that). He has a lifelong 100 percent record as a failure. We’re supposed to think that this will be different?

  • “failure [in Iraq] would be a disaster for the United States”

    The more accurate statement is: “the disaster [in Iraq] is already a [strategic & moral] failure for the United States”

  • In the effort to shore up his perceived intellect, President Bush changed his self-described nickname because “Decision-Maker” has more syllables.

  • I make the decisions that make the whole world singe
    I make the decisions of war and rights infringe
    I make the decisions that make the young boys die.
    I am Moron and I make the decisions

    with apologies to Former Dan

  • Dale,

    No apologies necessary. That was funny in a dark grim way and sad because it is all so true.

  • I’m just waiting for him to break into “Uh, well, some people call me the Space Cowboy, and some call me the Gangster of Love….”

  • This is not the first time he has called himself the decision maker. He did so almost one year ago. Here is the exact quote and here is my reworking of it.
    BTW, you know you’ve been commenting too long when you start to recycle old material.

  • I thought he was also “The Educator”?

    So he’s the … Decidededucatisoniser Make …er … um …

    **bangs head on desk**

    George W. Bush: Making the other two branches of government irrelevant since 2002.™

    **curls up into fetal position on floor**

  • BTW, you know you’ve been commenting too long when you start to recycle old material.

    Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

    Hey … if it’s good enough for our environment and political candidates …

  • Tom Cleaver,

    He has a lifelong 100 percent record as a failure.

    Not to his plutocratic buddies both in DC and in Texas. He’s been somewhat effective for them. Which is one of the reasons of why I detest him so much.

  • I still encounter people who defend Bush’s “intelligence”. They are a dwindling population, but they still exist. They insist he really isn’t that dumb. I don’t know why they do this. Either they are just as stupid as he is and don’t like being called stupid, or they have not heard all the horrifically stupid things he has uttered. This man is a disgrace. It will take decades to erase…no, that isn’t possible, to lessen the shame Bush has brought to this country.

  • He’s a decision-maker, not a decider, and this is augmentation, not escalation. These people split more hairs than theologians, to whom they bear a striking resemblance (including the part about hearing the voices).

  • I like the part where says of critics in congress: “They have an obligation and a serious responsibility therefore to put up their own plan as to what would work.”

    It’s rather like saying that you can’t criticize his plan turn sh!t into gold unless you offer your own sh!t to gold plan. The realization is spreading that the Bushites have bungled the situation in Iraq so badly that there may not be any way to save it.

  • I realize it’s pointless, but I am forced to also note that “preclude” means to “make impossible in advance” and his “way forward” in no way precludes disaster. I’d really like our next President to speak English.

    Some would suggest that it actually ensures disaster, but I think we’re long past ‘disaster or not disaster’ and well into degrees of disaster.

  • I like the part where says of critics in congress: “They have an obligation and a serious responsibility therefore to put up their own plan as to what would work.”

    As if they and others haven’t offered Plan after Plan after Plan, from the Korb strategic redeployment to the Baker-Hamilton fig leaf the Deciderermaker refused to cover his shame with.

    Man, he’s a putz.

  • Modified from something just sent me by a friend (that didn’t have “the decision-maker” yet):

    With apologies to Dr. Seuss:

    I’m the decicision-maker.
    I pick and I choose.
    I pick among whats.
    And choose among whos.
    And as I decision-make
    Each particular day,
    The things I decision-make on
    All turn out that way.
    I made the decision on Freedom
    For all of Iraq .
    And now that we have it,
    I’m not looking back.
    I made the decision on tax cuts
    That just help the wealthy.
    And Medicare changes
    That aren’t really healthy
    And parklands and wetlands
    Who needs all that stuff?
    I made the decision that none
    Would be more than enough!
    I decided that schools
    All in all are the best.
    The less that they teach
    And the more that they test.
    I made the decision those wages
    You need to get by,
    Are much better spent
    On some CEO guy.
    I decided your Wade
    Which was ‘versing your Roe,
    Is terribly awful
    And just has to go.
    I decided that levees
    Are not really needed.
    Now when hurricanes come
    They can come unimpeded.
    That old Constitution?
    Well, I have decided –
    As “just Goddamn paper”
    It should be derided.
    I’ve decided gay marriage
    Is icky and weird.
    Above all other things,
    It’s the one to be feared.
    And Cheney and Rummy
    And Condi all know
    That I’m the Deciision-Maker –
    They tell me it’s so.
    I’m the Decision-Maker
    So watch what you say,
    Or I may make the decision
    To have you whisked away.
    Or I’ll tap your phones.
    Your e-mail I’ll read.
    ’cause I’m the Decision-maker –
    Like Jesus decreed.

  • George better watch out or people might start calling him “The Widow-Maker”.

    Oh, wait, I already do.

  • steve_e #15 i agree with you about Dub’s intellect, but it still stumps me how he could graduate from Yale AND Harvard Business School and be as dumb as he seems. Any ideas?

  • Able to leap small bottles of Budweiser in a single bound…
    *insert breaking-glass sound effect

    Faster than a parked car-bomb…
    *Now, pick your favorite rendition of Hiroshima going “buh-bye”

    More powerful than a yammering poodle….
    *finally, add the squeal of a punt-dog being sent off a high-rise balcony

    It’s “DecisionMakerMan!!

    Right now, I think we could get a retired pee-wee football coach with a coin to flip—and have ourselves a better President than this doofus we’re stuck with….

  • Further proof that even Canadian right wingers are part of the “civilized sector” of North America (wouldn’t it be nice to see a “decision-maker” like this?):

    Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will give a formal apology to Maher Arar, the Canadian software engineer whom the United States detained and extradited to Syria, where he was brutally tortured.

    The announcement, which appears to be a public rebuke of the official U.S. position that Arar may be a terrorist, is set for 12:15, according to Harper’s office. Arar will hold a separate news conference at 2 p.m.

    Arar’s case has caused a deepening rift between Canada and the United States, which has to date refused to apologize for their treatment of Arar and will not remove him from its terrorist watch list.

    Canada will pay Arar $8 million for his claim against the government.

  • Not to break any laws — including Godwin’s — but that eugenics balderdash that the “bland fruit” is spouting at 24 does belong to Hitler…

  • He’s certainly convinced that he’s the decision maker and will trot out 750 signing statements to prove it.

  • …but it still stumps me how he could graduate from Yale AND Harvard Business School and be as dumb as he seems. Any ideas?

    The real trick with those schools is getting in and graduating with honors. As for the fomer, he’s a legacy and the son of a president, that’s how he got in. As for graduating, he clearly benefitted from the policy of Yale being generous in granting “gentleman’s Cs” to their less intelligent students. And keep in mind that Harvard Business School had every incentive to help W graduate and no incentive to kick him out. Sad, but true.

  • I just asked my Senator to delay any vote on a “Non-Binding Resolution” until she has a chance to see , finally, the NIE that has been much delayed. I don’t think any member of Congress should be willing to fully respond to Bush’s efforts until all the information is on the table. Remember the leadup to the War and the delayed, informative info that those NIEs contained that could have prevented this mess. Or , at least, given it the direction that both the Administration and the Legislative could have both supported. Bush has to have his comeupence and shown that the Public has asked Congress to force a new direction in Iraq. A Non-Binding Resolution does nothing and will reflect negatively on Congress. Not what we need now.

  • Tom,

    At this point I suspect that Dr Seuss might be just above the intellectual level of Bush’s Admin. Bravo.

  • I sometimes hear Repubs talking about how “we must respect the Presidency”, and I have concluded that I have to agree. I am tired of watching this buffoon drag our country and our high office through his mud. Next time I get told the old tired “respect” line, I will have to respond that I agree and that’s why it’s so important return to being a nation of laws and investigate (and if required), impeach this President. This man HAS NEVER respected the Presidency and is increasingly in a delusional rush to tear apart over 200 years of law and tradition.

  • “I had to come up with a way forward that precluded disaster.” – BG2

    Disaster being defined as America leaving Iraq early enough for it clearly to be BG2’s fault that we lost.

    Despite Nixon’s promise to the Nation to get us out of Vietnam, effectively “losing” the war to the Communists, he had to drag it out and watch America suffer tens of thousand more dead (not to mention the dead Vietnamese) so that the wingnuts could blame someone other than him. And believe me they will. They may be daring (Blankley) and begging (Buchanan) and Hoping (Novak) that the Democratic Congress will cut funding for this war so they are “forced out”, but come a Friedman later and they will be blaming (et al) the Democrats for losing the already lost.

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