This morning, George Bush gave what was his 47th and final press conference as president, the theme of which, he explained at its outset, was thanking the White House press corps for a job well done and letting them know he respects them – an abiding esteem he demonstrated throughout the presser by making fun of their names and responding to their questions with condescending hostility.
"We have been through a lot together," he began, and, I can only imagine the bittersweet emotions in the room, inevitably attendant at the end of any golden era, as Bush contemptuously accused the gathered journalists of "misunderestimating" him, waxed poetic about his forthcoming retirement – "I'm a Type A personality. You know, I just can't envision myself, you know, the big straw hat and a Hawaiian shirt sitting on some beach. Particularly since I quit drinking." – and reminisced about his father getting "landslided" in the 1964 Texas senate race.
Say what you will about the massive, lumbering, soul-crushing, pooch-screwing monster that is the eight-year Bush presidency, but President Obama isn't going to give up gems like that, people.
Nor is the famously even-tempered president-elect likely to spend his pressers vacillating wildly between absurd and belligerent, careening from the jocular demeanor of a man who never really understood the nature of his job – "I believe the phrase 'burdens of the office' is overstated. You know, it's, kind of, like, [affects whiny, woe-is-me voice and posture to laughter] 'Why me? Oh, the burdens,' you know. 'Why did the financial collapse have to happen on my watch'?" – to the hostile crouch of a man who must fiercely defend his own precarious version of reality:
I strongly disagree with the assessment that our moral standing has been damaged. It may be damaged amongst some of the elite. But people still understand America stands for freedom; that America is a country that provides such great hope. You go to Africa. You ask Africans about American's generosity and compassion. Go to India and ask about, you know, America's – their view of America. Go to China and ask.… I disagree with this assessment that, you know, people view America in a dim light. I just don't agree with that. And I understand – Gitmo has created controversies, but when it came time for those countries that were criticizing America to take some of those – some of those detainees, they weren't willing to help out. And – so, you know, I just disagree with the assessment....
My view is is that most people around the world, they respect America. And some of them doesn't like me – I understand that – some of the writers and the, you know, opiners and all that. That's fine. That's part of the deal. But I'm more concerned about the country and – and how people view the United States of America. They view us as strong, compassionate people who care deeply about the universality of freedom.
It's a weird habit that Bush has - when questioned about his legacy or the mistakes he and his administration may have made - to be simultaneously both tenaciously defensive of his decision-making and also talk about catastrophes and disasters and failures as things that just sort of magically happened – to the country, to him – without any sense that his role was to influence whether these things happened in the first place, no less to plan for their possibility. Even after eight years, after 9/11 and the impact of Katrina and the economic crisis, he still regards the presidency as a primarily reactive, rather than a proactive, position.
And he mightily defends his reactions – though he did allow this morning that maybe there were a few minor hiccups along the way: "Clearly, putting a 'mission accomplished' on [an] aircraft carrier was a mistake. It sent the wrong message. We were trying to say something differently, but, nevertheless, it conveyed a different message.… I've thought long and hard about Katrina; you know, could I have done something differently, like land Air Force One either in New Orleans or Baton Rouge."
Rarely is the question asked, is our presidents learning? I believe the answer is: Not really.
Topical policy questions were greeted with all the enthusiasm of a low-level corporate cubicle jockey who's already given her two-weeks notice when asked to overhaul the filing system. Yeah, yeah – whatevs. Save it for the new guy. Bush did, however, leave his own party with an important prescription for success: Be "compassionate and broad-minded" and "more inclusive."
He stopped just short, one imagines, of noting: "Because if you aren't, Barack the Magic Negro and his army of queers and bitches are going to destroy America! Heh heh."
So long, Mr Compassionate Conservative.
Melissa McEwan's blog Shakesville has been nominated in the "best liberal blog" category of the 2008 Weblog awards. Vote here.