Yahoo! News - Bush Says Election Ratified Iraq Policy: "President Bush (news - web sites) said the public's decision to reelect him was a ratification of his approach toward Iraq (news - web sites) and that there was no reason to hold any administration officials accountable for mistakes or misjudgments in prewar planning or managing the violent aftermath.
'We had an accountability moment, and that's called the 2004 elections,' Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post. 'The American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me.'"
This is only partially correct. It is clear that he was reelected, but to state that his couple of percentage point victory means that the people endorse his Iraq policy is a stretch. Especially since many of those who voted for him expressed concern about that policy.
But the broader issue is still that he sees accountability this way. I don't understand that or the conservatives who support him accepting that. Accountability is good, and we certainly demanded it from Clinton.
One other very interesting note was that he said he would not pressure the congress on the gay marriage amendment. This seems to contradict the administration's use of that as a campaign issue, though I wonder if social conservatives will see this bait and switch. This strikes me as a further character issue with this president. His campaign also attacked the Kerry camp when the idea of privatizing social security was raised before the election. Why can Bush state that he won't privatize social security and then make that the cornerstone of his second term? Why is that not a credibility issue? He runs on gay marriage and says he won't privatize, and then switches after elected. I think that is called "flip flopping" as I recall. Why won't conservatives hold him accountable? Oh, right. He doesn't feel the need to be accountable.
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