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Two Advisers Reflect on Eight Years With Bush
The Page by Mark Halperin —
... Wash Post hears from both White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten and national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley. ...
Bush Aides: Notion of Cheney Control "Just Hooey"
The Page by Mark Halperin —
... In a long interview with the WashPost, Josh Bolten and Stephen Hadley try to set the record straight on their boss.
Say the idea that Cheney was truly calling the shots is "hooey" and "bunk."
Bolten: "The president is, possibly contrary to public opinion, very good about hearing and wanting contrary advice." ...
"He's a good decision-maker"
AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth —
Everything you need to know about the interview conducted by the Washington Post with two of George Bush's top aides, Josh Bolten and Stephen Hadley, is summed up in this quote from Bolten: ...
Your Abbreviated Pundit Round-up
Daily Kos —
... Michael Abramowitz: Bolten and Hadley struggled with Bush's popularity and failed at explaining their boss to the American people. They should have just googled Sisyphus. ...
No More Mister Nice Blog — ... The all-out campaign to salvage Bush's legacy continues today, as national security adviser Stephen Hadley and White House chief of staff Josh Bolten give a joint interview to The Washington Post. ...
Morning Swim
Firedoglake —
... Reagan National Airport after making "suspicious" remarks. AirTran officials refused to rebook them even after the FBI had cleared them of any wrongdoing.
Paulson partially blames emerging markets for the current credit crisis. "A lot more needs to be learned about global imbalances."
No settlement reached after Russia cut off gas supply to Ukraine.
Josh Bolten and Stephen Hadley reflect on their time serving under Bush.
Scientists say that the decline of coral growth in ...
Bolten, Hadley, and lingering confusion
Political Animal —
BOLTEN, HADLEY, AND LINGERING CONFUSION.... White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley chatted with the Washington Post 's Michael Abramowitz at some length last week, reflecting on their eight years of service with George W. Bush. As they get ready to depart, I can't help but notice how confused they still are. Bolten said another of his goals when he took over was to try to get the country to see the likable boss he and other aides saw in private, convinced that would boost Bush's popularity. "I failed miserably," he conceded. ...
The Early Word: From Honolulu to Washington
The Caucus —
... Hamas militants in Gaza. The president in waiting maintained his silence, and kept his date at Semper Fit. But after some hours, the few aides on the trip let it be known that he had spoken with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as well as his own secretary-designate, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and James L. Jones Jr., his choice for national security adviser. Bush Legacy Two advisers to President Bush, chief of staff Joshua B. Bolten and national security adviser Stephen Hadley, reflect on the president’s White House years in The Washington Post. As the Post’s Michael ...
Free at Last
N/A —
... is the problem, you might have a few problems governing well.
If you are against government, you are against its solutions. So now we are left with free market economy in free fall. But it’s not George Bush’s fault. He just had the bad luck to be president when bad things were happening. The whole notion of Bush’s Freedom Agenda falls as Bush stumbles upon his lack of apparent free agency.
Get the picture? The pic of Bush is somewhat cubist. Ask Stephen Hadley, security adviser:
“This notion that ...
Quote of the Day
Taegan Goddard's Political Wire —
"One of the mythologies, is that it was the vice
president that somehow was pulling the strings on foreign policy in the
first term and made it very ideologically driven and that somehow in
the second term, the vice president's influence is in decline and,
therefore, somehow the real Bush has come forward, and we have a more pragmatic foreign policy. That's just hooey -- it's just hooey." -- Bush National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, in an interview with the Washington Post.
The culture of victimhood
The Reaction —
... he is just as much a victim of terrorism as everyone else and honestly can't understand what he did to earn him so much scorn. Vice President Dick Cheney has no idea why his poll numbers are so low, but then, he says he doesn't care about things like that. White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley can't understand why America couldn't see what a likable and compassionate person George W. Bush really is. ...
Will GOP Obstructionism Backfire Against Republican Extremists in 2010?
DownWithTyranny! —
... With the nation in countdown mode for the end of the much reviled Bush Regime, much energy is being expended-- particularly by regime operatives who, like ...
Stephen Kaus: Washington Post Article on Bush Aides Is Press Release in Disguise
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
... I didn't know the Washington Post ran press releases on its front page. But clearly, there was actual journalism was not practiced in Friday's interview with Bush "senior staffers" Joshua Bolton and Stephen Hadley. ...
From the Bush PR Wing
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan —
This was a striking comment in defense of Bush's mastery of his own government: "He's a good decision-maker," Bolten said. "If it's important enough to
be a presidential issue, we ought to expose the president to more
information and more views, and we ought to let him decide."
Who is the "we"? ...
Compassionate conservatism
Political Animal —
COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM.... A couple of weeks ago, reflecting on his eight years of service with George W. Bush, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley praised his boss' greatest personal strength: "He has got this great compassion which was not just a slogan, 'compassionate conservative.' It is who he is. It is one of the great things he brought to this office." At this point, the very idea of "compassionate conservatism" is something of a punch-line. Americans have come to see it as an empty rhetorical slogan, and no one takes it seriously anymore. And yet, Bush is ...
