It’s too bad former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan felt he had to write a memoir full of scathing criticisms toward President Bush and members of his inner circle. That’s just what you’ve got to do to make a quick buck nowadays, though, whether he was actually privy to what was going on or not.
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It is a somewhat comical and self-depricating irony when a guy like Scott McClellan points to a pattern of poor judgment by the President yet somehow doesn’t realize that maybe, just maybe, McClellan himself is another prime example of the President’s poor judgment.
Excellent point Jay. Bush has exercised very poor judgement when it comes to personnel. Harriet Miers nomination to the Supreme Court and Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez epitomize the problems he’s had in this department, but McClellen is another case in point. Bush was far too loyal to his Texas chums and they have been a large part of the reason why his has been a troubled presidency.
Alright. Somewhere along the line you have to stop pointing at your subordinates and pointing the finger at yourself.
A trait of leadership that is lost on Bush, probably due to his dodging the Vietnam War draft.
“Jim,” I don’t see how the Vietnam draft has anything to do with this issue (and it is a suspect claim, at best), but I certainly agree with you that Bush has not made good decisions in the personnel arena.
Dodging the draft, which GW and Cheney both did, left them out on a key concept of military discipline… One that I as an enlisted man am very familiar with.
If your subordinates mess up, YOU have messed up
Lead from the front
And If you lay with dogs, your going to catch fleas…
You are awfully critical of Obama’s ties and yet you ignore those of our sitting president GW Bush as “not making good decisions in the personnel area”
Is this Fair and unbias?
“Jim,” you make a very good point, but if you’re going to make a claim like Bush and Cheney dodged the Vietnam draft, then you need to document that claim with a credible source. Could you provide documentation for that claim? I’d like to look into it further myself. Thanks.
Dick Cheney…
Here you go…
When Cheney became eligible for the draft, he was a supporter of the Vietnam War but did not serve in the military. Instead, he applied for and received five draft deferments. In 1989, The Washington Post writer, George C. Wilson, interviewed Cheney as the next Secretary of Defense; when asked about his deferments, Cheney reportedly said, “I had other priorities in the ’60s than military service.”[15] Cheney testified during his confirmation hearings in 1989 that he received deferments to finish a college career that lasted six years rather than four, owing to sub par academic performance and the need to work to pay for his education. Initially, he was not called up because the Selective Service System was only taking older men. When he became eligible for the draft, he applied for four deferments in sequence. He applied for his fifth exemption on January 19, 1966, when his wife was about 10 weeks pregnant. He was granted 3-A status, the “hardship” exemption, which excluded men with children or dependent parents. In January 1967, Cheney turned 26 and was no longer eligible for the draft
The New York Times, 2004-05-01.
True American hero huh? Unless I am mistkaen, you have served JLG, how can you respect this guy?
And here is Bush’s…
By George Lardner Jr. and Lois Romano
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, July 28, 1999; Page A1
Fourth of seven articles
Two weeks before he was to graduate from Yale, George Walker Bush stepped into the offices of the Texas Air National Guard at Ellington Field outside Houston and announced that he wanted to sign up for pilot training.
It was May 27, 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War. Bush was 12 days away from losing his student deferment from the draft at a time when Americans were dying in combat at the rate of 350 a week. The unit Bush wanted to join offered him the chance to fulfill his military commitment at a base in Texas. It was seen as an escape route from Vietnam by many men his age, and usually had a long waiting list.
Bush had scored only 25 percent on a “pilot aptitude” test, the lowest acceptable grade. But his father was then a congressman from Houston, and the commanders of the Texas Guard clearly had an appreciation of politics.
Bush was sworn in as an airman the same day he applied. His commander, Col. Walter B. “Buck” Staudt, was apparently so pleased to have a VIP’s son in his unit that he later staged a special ceremony so he could have his picture taken administering the oath, instead of the captain who actually had sworn Bush in. Later, when Bush was commissioned a second lieutenant by another subordinate, Staudt again staged a special ceremony for the cameras, this time with Bush’s father the congressman – a supporter of the Vietnam War – standing proudly in the background.