December 05, 2007
Surprise, No Nukes
It was quite a press conference yesterday. Pretty Perky Pompous Presumptuous Pernicious Dana Perino, was displaced at the podium by the President himself. He had a big news doody to drop, which he usually does of a Friday. Guess what! Iran hasn't had any nukes since 2003. You can watch the whole performance if you have the stomach, or simply skip to the end where he gets petulant.
Dan Froomkin of the Washington Post was there, and has transcribed the grand finale for all of us, in a piece entitled "Neck Snapping Spin from the President".
But to hear Bush talk about it at the White House press conference this morning, the new NIE vindicated his beliefs and makes his warnings about Iran more potent.It was neck-snapping spin even by Bush standards. He intentionally misread the report's central point, failed to acknowledge a huge change in his argument for why Iran is dangerous and exhibited pure bullheaded stubbornness.
When Chicago Tribune reporter Mark Silva noted that Bush appeared dispirited and asked if he was troubled about what this would do to his credibility, Bush replied: "No, I'm feeling pretty spirited, pretty good about life, and have made the decision to come before you so I can explain the NIE. And I have said Iran is dangerous, and the NIE doesn't do anything to change my opinion about the danger Iran poses to the world. Quite the contrary. I'm using this NIE as an opportunity to continue to rally our colleagues and allies. . . .
"And so, you know, kind of Psychology 101 ain't working. It's just not working, you know? I am -- I understand the issues. I clearly see the problems and I'm going to use the NIE to continue to rally the international community for the sake of peace."
Help me remember... did they cover Korsakoff's syndrome, sociopathy and/or psychotic delusion in Psych 101? Maybe at Yale.
Why even Dancing David Gregory got a little rambunctious with the cocky rancher.
Undetered by truth, the usual Republican hate mongers were spinning their usual tales. John Bolton, Norman Podhoretz and Bill O'Reilly rushing to the President's support, rallied round and demonstrated a phenomenon which we all learned about in Sociology 101 -- at Yale.
Whereas Seymour Hersh and other members of the press who feel compelled to report reality told the truth.
Rudy and Mike Huckabee found that they had to do a little ad tweaking.
Hooray for our new chief of intelligence, if this was his doing.
Photo note: Notice something fishy behind the faded, limp and tattered American flag, flying next to the light and shadow - it must be a metaphorophoto
Addendum #1: Josh Marshall summarizes
Addendum #2: Former CIA officials call the claim that Bush wasn't privy to the information about Iran's nukes "preposterous".
Addendum #3: Pretty Perky Dana P says Bush was told in August, but feels there's no contradiction to Bush's baldfaced lie
Addendum #4: Dan Froomkin analyzes Bush's subtle language changes since August
Addendum #5: