The Gamut

New Zealand News - World - Transcript: President Bush's press conference

Q Thank you, Mr. President. In the last campaign, you were asked a question about the biggest mistake you'd made in your life, and you used to like to joke that it was trading Sammy Sosa. You've looked back before 9/11 for what mistakes might have been made. After 9/11, what would your biggest mistake be, would you say, and what lessons have you learned from it?

*cue crickets*

THE PRESIDENT: I wish you would have given me this written question ahead of time, so I could plan for it. (Laughter.) John, I'm sure historians will look back and say, gosh, he could have done it better this way, or that way. You know, I just -- I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with an answer, but it hadn't yet.

There are a number of things the fool could have acknowledged. He could have simply said that disbanding the Iraqi army was a mistake. He could have said not securing the Iraqi museums and allowing priceless Iraqi artifacts to be looted was a mistake. He could have said that in hindsight, they maybe should have listened more to men like Richard Clarke, John O'Neill, Scott Ritter and Army Gen. Eric K. Shinseki.

Of those, the safest thing he could have done would have been to acknowledge John O'Neill was right. The guy is gone. He's dead. He can't come back and benefit from it, and the left couldn't criticize him for admitting that the guy was right.

But to say that he couldn't think of a single thing that he's done wrong? Come on!

Clinton acknowledged mistakes. Reagan acknowledged his mistakes. Nixon, on the other hand, could never admit a mistake, and look what happened to him.

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