With job approval poll numbers sliding below 40 percent in recent days, President Bush yesterday grudgingly indicated perhaps all had not gone swimmingly at the federal level in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Bush took responsibility for the sluggish response "to the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right." While this may seem to the untrained ear a very weak statement of accountability, it in fact represents the first time in nearly five years that the man who works in the office where the buck stops has taken responsibility for anything.
Compare Bush's words yesterday to his response when asked at the second presidential debate last year to list three mistakes he had made in his first term. On that occasion, on the campus of Washington University, Bush awkwardly but insistently defended his decisions to go to war in Iraq and implement a gigantic tax cut, and then said: "Now you asked what mistakes. I made some mistakes in appointing people, but I'm not going to name them. I don't want to hurt their feelings on national TV."
It is clear that Karl Rove has begun to think outside the box in an effort to prevent the President's approval rating from falling below freezing. His new strategy appears to be to make Bush seem like a responsible adult. Humility and accountability are valued leadership qualities and are to be commended. But if Rove is serious about releasing his lame duck back to the pond of political viability, humility and accountability should be extended retrospectively to the initial five years of the Bush Administration.
First, the President should apologize to the American people for lying to them and committing blood and treasure to a war of ideological colonialism that has left the country more vulnerable than it was originally.
Next, Bush should take responsibility for being handed a healthy national surplus and promptly turning it into the largest deficit in American history.
The Commander-in-Chief should issue a general mea culpa for simultaneously cutting taxes for the rich and relief programs for the poor during a period when the poverty rate has increased over 10 percent.
President Bush should apologize to Valerie Plame for employing a maliciously leaky deputy chief of staff, and to the American public for flip-flopping on his promise to fire anyone involved in leaking the name of a CIA operative to television and print entertainer Robert Novak.
He should apologize to high school students and anyone valuing rationality and the scientific method for elevating a religious belief system to the level of the theory of evolution.
The "I'm sorry, America" campaign would be a long, painful one for the President. It's hard work apologizing, and he may have to skip his next vacation in order to make amends for colossal job losses, falling wages and rising gas prices. But it is necessary if the President hopes to be in the position, politically, to make even more devastating mistakes in the next three years.
