Countdown: Revisionist Presidency
Keith Olbermann went after George W. Bush and the interview Rupert Murdoch's National Geographic Channel gave him with an opportunity to engage in a bit of revisionist history with his explanation with how he responded after the attacks on 9-11.
Keith hit Bush for changing the accounts of what happened on 9-11 such as saying that at first he thought a light aircraft hit one of the Twin Towers, and then later telling an Orlando town hall that he saw the first plane hit the first tower on television.
During his interview on Nat Geo, Bush tried to pretend that he was projecting “calm” when he was first notified of the attacks, and as Keith noted, “there are words to describe President Bush's expression at that moment. Calm is not one of them.” Confusion or panic would be better terms, as Keith noted, for what we saw from Bush that day.
During the Murdoch “documentary”, Bush claimed that he was the one who gave the order to shoot down commercial aircraft that refused to land. As Keith pointed out, maybe he did and maybe he didn't, and according to the 9-11 Commission it was Vice President Cheney who actually gave that order. And while Cheney said he spoke to President Bush first, there was never any confirmation of that.
Olbermann also slammed Bush for ignoring George Tenet's warning that Bin Laden was determined to strike in the U.S. and what his motivations might have been during his recent interview for not wanting to go after the intelligence community leading up to the attack. Bush apparently didn't want that “finger pointing” to be aimed at himself.
And last but not least, Bush pretended during his interview this week that after a meeting on September 15 at Camp David, the Bush administration decided they were going to “deal with Iraq later on”, when as Keith noted, according to former Treasury Sec. Paul O'Neill and Gen. Wesley Clark, Bush made the decision to invade Iraq well before then, and the Bush administration was ready to take that dictator out from their first day in office.
I think it's a shame we don't have more in our media doing that Keith did here and taking a look back at what words and actions came out of the Bush administration and calling them out for trying to revise history with these recent interviews by both Bush and Cheney. Instead we've got a bunch of Villager he said/she said and isn't it terribly controversial that this sociopath from the Bush administration Cheney is willing to throw the rest of them under the bus, but let's not bother to fact check the man while we've got him on the air.
Keith followed up with talking to John Dean about all of this, who knows a thing or two about working for a corrupt administration and who was pretty disgusted to say the least with the interviews given to both Bush and Cheney in today's friendly corporate media environment where they're allowed to have air time without being held accountable for their actions while in office.
Yes. The piece was an attempt of Bush (and the right wing) to salvage some of his self-respect and the respect of the country. But the points mentioned in the post above are minor compared to what happened. Did he think it was a light plane? Who knows? Did he look like he was confused or calm? Who knows? Was he consulted by Cheney? Who knows? To me, these are minor parts of the whole. There is no way to prove he is lying about these points. So why quibble with them.
But if you ask me, it looked to me like Bush went into a shell. He wasn't trying to exude calm. He was stunned. So if Cheney gave the order, maybe he did consult with Bush, but he had to consult with Bush, because Bush had to be prodded into getting into action.
...don't make me laugh. The ugly bag of water named bush has no self respect, deserves zero respect and should be locked up or at least forbidden to ever appear in anything that doesn't start with: This is the luckiest son of a bitch (my apologies to his mother) that ever lived who isn't in jail but should be.
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
Your comment in no way contradicted anything I said.
The points being criticized in the blog posting were minor.
Light plane?
Bush's claim that he tried to exude calm?
Cheney and/or Bush?
Is that all they have? The blog post was weak.
The whole point about Bush's interview and Cheney's book is that they can lie and lie and lie. They can say whatever they want. The records are sealed. Nobody can effectively contradict them. It's a he said, he/she said. Personally, I don't believe anything that comes out of Bush's or Cheney's mouths. Slime.
Bush said he sat there in the class room because he didn't want to freak out the kids, yet only minutes later he addressed the nation from the same school with some of the kids as a backdrop. Gimme a break! Between this interview and Cheney's book, who knows what the hell was going on that day? I doubt we'll ever get the real truth from any of the players.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Bush said he sat there in the class room because he didn't want to freak out the kids...
What did he think his other option was to run screaming from the classroom, kids in the USA are used to Superman saying, gotta go kids and save the world, they can take it (obviously better then Jr.)
Trying to rewrite/obscure the facts and details of that day and the decisions that followed, so that future historians don’t portray them as the monsters that fked up the USA for money and profits and pushed their radical social agenda forward on this terrible event.
If there’s any justice out there Bush's God creates another level of hell for him and Cheney to go too....
out there, this present "weak-spined" President and his Government MUST sue the whole former government and BUSH first of course. Or else the International Court of Justice.
I just watched the video. I really like Keith, but his criticism is weak. I agree with him that Bush and Cheney are trying to rewrite history, but come on.
Bush claims that he was told a plane hit the World Trade Center, and he first thought it was a small plane. Keith says that Bush has said in the past that he saw the first plane hit on TV, and Keith claims this is rewriting history. But how could Bush have seen the first plane? He was in Florida. Was he watching a live feed of the Twin Towers all day? It is an established fact that Bush was reading a book to some kids when he was told about the plane. So his statement in Orlando about seeing the first plane hit on TV must mean that he saw a tape of it. Or maybe he really meant that he saw the second one hit, since TV cameras were all pointing at the building at the time. Bush is famous for mis-speaking. Overall, this criticism is extremely weak.
Bush claims that he was trying to look calm. Keith says that he actually looked scared and confused. Well, it is possible to say Bush was TRYING to look calm, but he ended up looking confused. The clip Keith uses is one of Bush in the classroom after he first realized what had happened. He does look confused - or maybe that's how he looks under stress and he's thinking of possible options. I don't know. But, again, Keith's point is weak.
And whether Bush issued the order or Cheney did is something that historians will argue about. I would suspect that it was Cheney. Bush was too busy being ushered into safety. By the time he was up in Air Force One, I imagine that there were no other planes in the air. But that's 10 years ago. Who knows?
All I can say is that Bush and Cheney are trying to rewrite history, trying to polish their images. And Keith should try to come up with better material. He was excellent during the 8 years of the Bush presidency. He can do better. How could he not do better when there's so much material?
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