England for Obama

Here it is in all its, well, not glory. Self-delusion and arrogance, perhaps. George Bush’s final address to the nation. Nay, the world:

It is, to quote Curb Your Enthusiasm, just one big bowl of wrong. But the particularly wrong parts, to my mind, were:

1. That there’s “no debate about the results” of his post-9/11 actions. Sorry, Bushie, but there is. Terrorist attacks around the world increased, and Americans (and its allies) became more of a target, and more hated by the Muslim world, than ever. (And that’s not even taking into account the fact that, despite warnings, 9/11 was able to happen in the first place.)

2. The implied new ‘If you’re against us, you’re with the terrorists’, namely: If you’re against me, you’re against all those selfless patriots who work to defend America. Mind you, Republicans have been using the ‘If you’re against American war, you’re against our troops’ idea for years now.

3. The idea that there is only one take on what is good and what is evil, or what constitutes “freedom”. Because to Bush et al, it’s only worth freeing an oppressed people when it’s in their interests to do so. I don’t remember them caring much about the Iraqi people when Rumsfeld was shaking hands with Saddam Hussein. And I haven’t noticed them condemning Israel’s likely war crimes as “evil”.

4. Finally, and most significantly, I think: the way in which Bush justifies his horrendous, horrific actions in the lawyer-ly (and implicitly religious) way that Tony Blair does, saying: “I’ve always acted with the best interests of our country in mind. I have followed my conscience. And done what I thought was right.”

Hear that, people? You can’t get him. On anything. Because it’s all a matter of opinion, and morals, as far as Bush and Blair are concerned. Forget facts. And results. Bush had “tough decisions” to make and followed his “conscience” when deciding what to do. So screw you if you disagree with him – because you can’t tell him he felt the wrong thing.

Here was Chris Matthews’ analysis of it. And he’s spot-on:

And here was Scott McClellan:

Tags: bush final speech, bush video, chris matthews, countdown, George Bush, george bush final speech, george bush video, keith olbermann, scott mcclellan, tony blair

This entry was posted on Friday, January 16th, 2009 at 10:49 am and is filed under George Bush, News, Press Coverage, Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.