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"See the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this **** and it's over." -President George W. Bush
In case you missed it, President Bush swore on Monday. He was having a chat with Tony Blair during a G8 meeting regarding the Israel-Hezbollah situation and used some unfortunate language, not knowing his microphone was on.
And back in September, during a Security Council meeting, Bush wrote a little note to Condolezza Rice, telling her he needed to use the bathroom. A Reuters' photographer snapped a picture. Once, while he was in China, he tried to open a door that he didn't know was locked, and had a bit of a chuckle about it with reporters. Oh, and during his campaign, he called Adam Clymer of the New York Times "a major league asshole," once again over a mic that he didn't know was open.
Two questions: why does stuff like this even make the news, and why do we keep faulting Bush for doing things that are perfectly human?
I'm no fan of the President. I didn't vote for him. I don't like his politics. I don't particularly like him as a person. I think he's wrecking the country. I thoroughly believe that if you gave him a lever and a place to stand, he would crash the Earth into the sun.
However, it's ridiculous the way people jump on every little misstep he makes. Yes, he's usually good for a laugh or two, but screwing up doesn't make him a bad guy. Be honest. Have you never sworn in public? Never said something you didn't mean for anyone to hear when you thought no one was listening? Never mispronounced a word? If you haven't, you're probably lying, but that's OK. That's perfectly human too, as well as a common pastime of many presidents.
We even fault him for doing things he should be doing. The infamous bathroom note was lambasted six ways from Sunday on the Internet. Everyone seemed to have something to say about it, which was usually trite and not very clever. Everyone seems to miss the real point of the note: the leader of the free world does not just wander out of a Security Council meeting. That action means something, and it's not exactly helpful for debate. To just walk out with no explanation would be terrifically rude. The note was a good thing, not some indication of weakness.
Bush is a human being. He isn't the Prezbot 3000. He's never going to be perfect, and if he starts to be, we should all be extremely worried. All of us have better things to worry about than whether or not the president curses. When he does it in the middle of the State of the Union, then you can start complaining about it.
The reputation of the United States is extremely important, and the president plays a very important role in upholding that reputation. Swearing in public and admitting that he needs to use the restroom are not actions which should damage that reputation. They're not even particularly worthy of reporting.
If you want to talk about things Bush has done in eroding the reputation of the United States, start with things that he's done purposefully. Examine his botched response to Katrina, the entire Iraq War, his Social Security plan, his campaign against homosexuals, his utterly silly solution to the illegal immigrant issue or any number of other gross errors he's made. He's said some utterly ridiculous and untrue things.
Don't hate the guy because he had to pee or because he used a dirty word. He's only human. Don't hate- or love, for that matter- Bush because someone else thinks you should. With so many justified reasons to dislike him, hating him because he's a human being is just weak.
