The new Center for American Progress is watching Bush daily.
Excerpts from today:
(Bush said yesterday)that "the world is more peaceful and more free under my leadership." It was an astounding declaration considering the fact that the U.S. is mired in a guerilla war in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is escalating, and a nuclear threat is boiling in Iran and North Korea. As Amnesty International noted in its 2003 annual report , "The world has become more dangerous, and governments more repressive, since the effort to fight terrorism began after 9/11."
...He said “The ‘Mission Accomplished’ sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished. I know it was attributed some how to some ingenious advance man from my staff - they weren't that ingenious.” But according to the NYT on 5/16/03, “White House officials say that a variety of people, including the president, came up with the [Mission Accomplished] idea, and that a White House advance staffer embedded himself on the carrier to make preparations days before Mr. Bush's landing in a flight suit and his early evening speech…The staffer and his aides had choreographed every aspect of the event, even down to the members of the Lincoln crew arrayed in coordinated shirt colors over Mr. Bush's right shoulder and the 'Mission Accomplished' banner placed to perfectly capture the president and the celebratory two words in a single shot.” And, as CNN reported this morning, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that in preparing for the speech, Navy officials on the carrier told Bush aides they wanted a "Mission Accomplished" banner, and the White House agreed to create it. "We took care of the production of it," McClellan said.
...The president declared yesterday at his press conference, “Credibility comes when you say something is going to happen and then it does happen…You are not credible if you issue resolutions and then nothing happens.” By this definition, Bush’s own former statements on employment, tax cuts and the war in Iraq fail the credibility test. Three months after being sworn in, Bush declared of his tax cuts, “Tax relief will create new jobs,” a cry he revisited just last month about his second round of cuts with, “Tax relief means new jobs in America.” Those jobs haven’t appeared. Currently, President Bush is poised to become the first American president since Herbert Hoover to preside over a nation with fewer jobs available at the end of his term than when he started; since the first tax cut took effect in June, 2001, the economy has lost 2.75 million jobs. The second tax cut was followed by a drop of 124,000 more.
