What Did George W. Bush Do All Day?
Here is an article I had written a couple of months ago for another website but I liked it so well I thought I would reprint it for you here.
The recent article in GQ magazine detailing Donald Rumsfeld’s incompetence while Secretary of Defense reads like a chapter from a bizaro version of the idiots guide to good government. It seems beyond belief that things could go so wrong in the Defense Department at such a crucial time in our history. But while all of the focus of the article is on Rumsfeld, he does not deserve the ultimate blame for his own immature and petty behavior. While it is true that Rumsfeld acted like a child in situation after situation, if there had been an engaged and responsible supervisor, he would have never acted the way he did. The real story is that Bush the “decider” failed. He either did not know or did not care how badly Rumsfeld performed his job
Failing to supervise Rumsfeld would have been bad enough but unfortunately it was standard operating procedure within the Bush White House. All evidence is now pointing to a President who left major policy decisions and operational control of those policies in the hands of people who he trusted without question and without oversight. His trust, it seems, was misplaced and his judgment flawed. The Katrina disaster is the most visible example of his feckless administrative style. “Heck of a job Brownie” will go down in history as one of the most out of touch moments in presidential history. Another example is the impromptu meeting inside the White House last September to inform the President of the full extent of the financial crisis. When presented with the facts by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson he expressed shock and surprise and innocently asked “How did we get here”? This, remember, was weeks after several bailouts, bank closings and numerous other warning signs pointing toward a financial meltdown of enormous proportions. His failure to engage in his own government and his failure to exert command and control is even more obvious when contrasted with the activist hands-on presidency of Barack Obama. Although health care is proving to be a tougher job to accomplish than most of us would have liked, this feels like a president excercising more command and control. One cannot imagine William Gates playing petty politics with the Department of Defense and with the lives of American Soldiers and Obama letting him get away with it.
What did President Bush do all day while he was in office? Did he think that the Presidency was the same as being the Governor of Texas only bigger? Did he think it was going to be easy? Or was he continually told that he needed people like Cheney and Rumsfeld and Rove. Had he come to believe that he truly wasn’t capable of handling these complex problems? Did he give up? Did he delegate or did he abdicate? Rumsfeld, Cheney, Gonzalez, Rove and Rice needed a leader so their own personality flaws wouldn’t get out of control and get this country into trouble. Instead they got “Atta boy” and “Way to go” and “Heck of a job”. They got disinterest, disengagement and platitudes. We needed a President who was capable and willing to accept all of the burdens and responsibilities of “leader of the free world”. Instead we got a man who had failed at everything he had ever tried to do in his life except get elected President of the United States. He then catastrophically failed to live up to his duty to the office and his obligations to this country.
