I thought it sounded out of context, and it was. But what's pretty horrific to me is the way that Politico, the Huffington Post, and of course Keith Olbermann have been deliberately slanderous in interpreting what was said.
To bring you up to date, this is what Politico wrote, and quoted:
Bush said he made that decision after the August 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, which killed Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top U.N. official in Iraq and the organization’s high commissioner for human rights.
Sounds pretty cut and dry. Right?
This is the actual quote from Bush that they provide:
“I remember when de Mello, who was at the U.N., got killed in Baghdad as a result of these murderers taking this good man's life,” he said. “I was playing golf — I think I was in central Texas — and they pulled me off the golf course and I said, ‘It's just not worth it anymore to do.’"From that, you would assume that Bush was asked when he made the decision to give up golf, and his response was that he did it when de Mello was killed.
Correct?
There probably isn't a word that could change that meaning. Right?
Now let's look at the actual transcript:
Q Mr. President, was there a particular moment or incident that brought you to that decision, or how did you come to that?Note the very first word out of the president's mouth - the one I bolded - when he was asked if there was any particular moment or incident that bought him to that decision.
THE PRESIDENT: No, I remember when de Mello, who was at the U.N., got killed in Baghdad as a result of these murderers taking this good man's life. And I was playing golf -- I think I was in central Texas -- and they pulled me off the golf course and I said, it's just not worth it anymore to do.
The word was "no."
That word is kinda important, because Politico left it out of their quote. Please note that.
Now Keith Olbermann has interpretted Bush's statement to say that he promised - the day that de Mello was killed - that he wouldn't play golf anymore. (Olbermann had video of Bush playing two months later, and slobbered into his petty microphone that Bush lied about golfing. Its important to note that in the past 4 years, no one has come up with an incident of Bush playing golf.)
This would be relevant if Bush hadn't actually said "No..." when he was asked if there was any particular moment or incident that made him take that decision.
Does Bush follow up with a story on something that clearly helped him come to that decision? Yes. But only after telling the interviewer "No..." that there was no particular moment or incident.
Let me put it another way. If the word "no" didn't blunt the words after it... then why did Politico edit it out?
Now you can argue that the Huffington Post just never read the actual transcript. Cool... they've had time to read it since then.
-And you can't possibly argue that Olbermann hasn't seen the whole transcript, so he's just being a dishonest asshole as usual.
But to me, the question becomes about the left in general. How is it that the actual transcript eluded all of them? Didn't someone on the left feel obliged to say, "Hey, you know, he actually said 'no' at the beginning of that sentence"?
Really?
Anyone?
4 comments:
Or maybe they left out "no" because it didn't make sense along with the rest of the answer Bush gave? He went on to cite a "particular moment" of the kind asked for in the question -- so "no" doesn't make sense when combined with the words that follow it in the context of the question asked.
You're really reaching here.
Bush's full answer -- that he decided to give up golf when news of de Mello 's death reached him on a golf course -- is belied by subsequent instances in which Bush played golf.
And the larger point, of course, is that the sacrifice of golf is all this piece of crap could give by way of reply to the question of how he himself has sacrificed for his Iraq war. That he wasn't honest even in this paltry answer is just icing on a rotten cake.
"Or maybe they left out "no" because it didn't make sense along with the rest of the answer Bush gave?"
Dale,
You're choosing Olbermann's interpretation over what Bush actually said.
You heard the second part of his answer, so you're ignoring the first. Unless you think starting a answer with the word "no" is unimportant.
You have two choices; you can either believe that the answer to the question starting with the word 'no' is important, or that it isn't.
If you believe that the word "no" is unimportant, then you've already decided what Bush's answer is. Then you, like Olbermann, are choosing Bush's words instead of quoting them honestly.
Or you can believe that the man intended to say the word no.
"He went on to cite a "particular moment" of the kind asked for in the question -- so "no" doesn't make sense when combined with the words that follow it in the context of the question asked."
No sir.
(Please note that I started with the word "no", and please don't edit that out.)
Bush listed -A- moment, not -THE- moment, that helped him decide that being on the golf course when a "mom or dad" lost their son sent the wrong message.
If it was -THE- moment, then he wouldn't have started off the sentence with the word 'no'.
"You're really reaching here."
I'm reaching???
Olbermann left out the ONE WORD that changed the meaning of that paragraph.
Your explaination for him is that he did it 'because it didn't make sense'???
It made perfect sense. Which is why Olbermann obviously choose to edit the word out.
"Bush's full answer -- that he decided to give up golf when news of de Mello 's death reached him on a golf course -- is belied by subsequent instances in which Bush played golf."
And again, that's not when he decided. At least not if you choose to list his full answer .
"And the larger point, of course, is that the sacrifice of golf is all this piece of crap could give by way of reply to the question of how he himself has sacrificed for his Iraq war."
How did you get that question wrong, Dale?
He wasn't asked how he sacrificed himself for the Iraq war.
He was asked, specifically, if the reason that he was no longer playing golf was related to the war.
Here's the question:
Now ask yourself; how is it that you got that question wrong, unless Olbermann was intentionally trying to put Bush's answer in a bad light?
This was the ACTUAL question Bush was asked:
"Q Mr. President, you haven't been golfing in recent years. Is that related to Iraq? "
That's a lot different from what you thought he was asked:
"...to the question of how he himself has sacrificed for his Iraq war."
Seriously? Is that what you thought he was asked?
-John
I am, along with Olbermann, reading Bush's entire sentence-length, indeed paragraph-length, answer and making sense of it. I am not stopping at the first word of the lengthy answer, as you are.
I am pleased to include the first word in my effort to make sense of the whole. My reading of that first word: it was a misstatement. It does not cohere with the rest of the lengthy answer. I toss it out for the sake of making sense of larger statement. The rest of the statement -- all the words that Bush spoke after the first one, the one you like so much, the one you seem to be pretending concluded Bush's remarks that day -- are responsive to the question. It's not as though he said 'no' and then started talking about a completely different topic.
His answer to the yes/no question was 'yes' followed by details. The 'no' was a gaffe (not his first, and not his most serious).
Get over it. All the chaff you throw makes no difference. I really think you're not this deluded. Why are you pretending this way? It's embarrassing. We bloggers need to be better than this.
Alright, Dale... only one way for you to understand what I'm talking about.
I'm going to "Olbermann" your answer:
"His answer to the yes/no question was 'yes'"
Which of course, is a lie.
Oh wait, you said more, but that was confusing to me. So I omitted it.
See how that works? All fair and stuff, right?
"Get over it."
I won't.
I refuse to let Olberrmann, you, and others misquote the president.
You said earlier:
"And the larger point, of course, is that the sacrifice of golf is all this piece of crap could give by way of reply to the question of how he himself has sacrificed for his Iraq war."
You were completely wrong about what the question is. You won't even address that.
Why?
You said:
"It's embarrassing. We bloggers need to be better than this."
Yes.
Yes you do.
You got the question completely wrong. Bush wasn't asked what he was sacrificing for the Iraq war.
The question is... why did you think that was the question???
-John
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