The POTUS must be bored in the waning days (How Soon, O Lord?) of his term of office. His handlers allowed the POTUS to answer questions in an unscripted situation. The results remain for all to see. If this is (fair & balanced) incomptence, so be it.
[x NPR]
It's Better To Remain Silent....
By George W. Bush
President Bush on Thursday acknowledged "unsettling times" in the U.S. housing and credit markets but said he was optimistic the economy would remain strong as long as Congress does not raise taxes.
In a wide-ranging news conference at the White House, Mr. Bush answered questions on the economy, Iraq and the Middle East, and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, known as SCHIP.
"There is no question there are some unsettling times in the housing markets and credits associated with the housing market," the president told reporters.
Asked about the chances of a recession, Mr. Bush responded that he is optimistic about the U.S. economy, "but I would be pessimistic if Congress does what it wants to do and raises taxes."
Pressed on the issue, Mr. Bush said, "You need to talk to an economist."
"I think I got a 'B' in Econ 101, but I got an 'A' in not raising taxes," he said.
The president rebuffed recent comments by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan suggesting that the administration had been fiscally irresponsible.
"My feelings are not hurt," he said. "I respectfully disagree with Alan Greenspan when he says we didn't handle the fiscal situation well, because we did."
Mr. Bush opened the news conference with a statement challenging Democrats on their proposal for a $35 billion increase in a children's health insurance program. The president has threatened to veto the bill.
The increase for the State Children's Health Insurance Program would bring total spending to about $60 billion, or twice the level sought by the administration.
The president urged lawmakers to send him a simple extension of the current program - which expires at the end of this month – if both sides cannot agree on terms of a new measure.
On the subject of Iraq, Mr. Bush said there has been progress in local communities in Iraq, but people are dissatisfied with the central government.
"Part of the reason why there's not this instant democracy in Iraq is because people are still recovering from Saddam Hussein's brutal rule. Sort of an interesting comment, I heard somebody say, `Where's Mandela?' Well, Mandela's dead because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas."
In the testiest exchange in the news conference, the president refused to answer a question about Israel's alleged bombing raid in Syria. A reporter asked if Mr. Bush could comment on the target and whether he supported the attack.
After a short back and forth, the president said "I'm not going to comment on the matter means I'm not going to comment on the matter."
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the forty-third and current President of the United States of America, originally inaugurated on January 20, 2001. Bush was elected president in the 2000 presidential election and re-elected in the 2004 presidential election. He previously served as the forty-sixth Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000, and is the eldest son of former United States President George Herbert Walker Bush.
Following college, Bush worked in his family's oil businesses before making an unsuccessful run for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978. He later co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team before returning to politics in a campaign for Governor of Texas. He defeated Ann Richards and was elected Governor of Texas in 1994. Bush won the presidency in 2000 as the Republican candidate in a close and controversial contest, in which he lost the nationwide popular vote, but won the electoral vote.
As president, Bush pushed through a $1.3 trillion tax cut program and the No Child Left Behind Act. In October 2001, after the attacks on September 11, 2001, Bush announced a global War on Terrorism and ordered an invasion of Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban, destroy Al-Qaeda, and to capture Osama bin Laden. In March 2003, Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq, asserting that Iraq was in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1441 and that the war was necessary for the protection of the United States.
Running as a self-described "war president" in the midst of the Iraq War, Bush was re-elected in 2004; his presidential campaign against Senator John Kerry was successful despite controversy over Bush's prosecution of the Iraq War and his handling of the economy. After his re-election, Bush received increasingly heated criticism. His domestic approval has declined from 90 percent (the highest ever recorded by The Gallup Organization) immediately after the September 11, 2001 attacks to a low of 26 percent (in a Newsweek poll taken in June 2007), the lowest level for any sitting president in 35 years. Only Harry Truman and Richard Nixon scored lower.
© 2007 National Public Radio
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