Friday night former U.S. President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush made a private visit to the victims of the massacre at Fort Hood:

The Bushes entered and departed the sprawling military facility in secret, having told the base commander they did not want press coverage of their visit, a source told Fox News.

Former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura secretly visited Fort Hood last night and spent “considerable time” consoling those who were wounded in Thursday’s shooting spree, Fox News has learned.

The Bushes entered and departed the sprawling military facility in secret, having told the base commander they did not want press coverage of their visit, a source told Fox News.

The couple was described as “deeply concerned” about military families on Fort Hood after Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly opened fire on soldiers and civilians, killing 13 and wounding 38.

The Bushes, who have a 1,600-acre property known as Prairie Chapel Ranch less than 30 miles from Fort Hood in central Texas, spent between one and two hours visiting the wounded and their families.

Contrast the Bush’s behavior with that of Obama who flew to Dover, Delaware to pay his respects to the returning remains of fallen American soldiers making sure he had a full press contingent in tow.

And while we are talking about contrasts, how about Obama’s first public words as this tragedy unfolded? Yes, he did have a statement to make, but he prefaced it with friendly banter and standard boilerplate that was totally inappropriate. As millions of Americans watched and waited for their President to help them deal with this news, this is what they saw and heard:

OBAMA: Please, everybody, have a seat. Let me first of all just thank Ken and the entire Department of the Interior staff for organizing just an extraordinary conference.

I want to thank my Cabinet members and senior administration officials who participated today. I hear that Dr. Joe Medicine Crow (ph) was around, and so I want to give a shout out to that Congressional Medal of Honor winner. It’s good to see you.

(APPLAUSE)

My understanding is is that you had an extremely productive conference. I want to thank all of you for coming and for your efforts, and I want to give you my solemn guarantee that this is not the end of a process, but the beginning of a process and that we are going to follow up.

(APPLAUSE)

We are going to follow up. Every single member of my team understands that this is a top priority for us. I want you to know that, as I said this morning, this — this is not something that we just give lip service to. And we are going to keep on working with you to make sure that the first Americans (ph) get the best possible chances in life in a way that’s consistent with your extraordinary traditions and culture and values.

Now, I have to say, though, that beyond that, I had planned to make some broader remarks about the challenges that lay ahead for Native Americans as well as collaboration with our administration.

Let’s not overlook the fact that Obama awarded Crow the Medal of Freedom, a civilian award, and not the Medal of Honor which is bestowed on extraordinary members of the U.S. military.

Now, many of us realized a long, LOOONNNGGGGG time ago that Obama just reads the words on his teleprompter. Apparently, he doesn’t even think about what he is saying and how tone deaf those words can be. But he was billed as the smartest man ever to hold the office. What a crock!

Remember how the left howled when President Bush was first learned of the September 11th attacks yet continued on for a few more minutes with the reading of “My Pet Goat” to Florida schoolchildren? Erick Ericson at Red State believes this is Obama’s My Pet Goat moment.

But it’s not just right wing bloggers who feel Obama is tone deaf. Today’s editorial in the Boston Globe speaks to those wider concerns:

Obama’s initial remarks came shortly after 5 p.m. Thursday, while Americans were struggling to come to grips with the shocking rampage and its chaotic aftermath. The stage was set for the president to quickly and somberly address the tragedy. Instead, a serene-looking Obama offered light introductory comments, keyed to those attending a Tribal Nations Conference that was hosted by the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs. His introduction included a convivial “shout-out’’ to one of the conference attendees.

Several minutes in, Obama finally called the Fort Hood shootings “a horrific outburst of violence.’’ The words he spoke next were respectful and appropriate. But it took him too long to get to the point of delivering them.

It takes more than scripted eloquence for presidents to connect with their fellow Americans. It requires a visceral ability to grasp the scope of tragedy, calculate its impact on the national psyche, and react swiftly to it. Ronald Reagan did it after the Challenger explosion took the lives of seven crew members on Jan. 28, 1986. So did Bill Clinton, after the Oklahoma City bombings of April 19, 1995, left 168 dead and more than 600 injured.

When a gunman fired those shots at Fort Hood, the country immediately felt the pain. Obama missed the first moment to show he understood just how much it hurt.

Barack Obama: Too inexperienced to be elected President and still not to the job!

While Bush’s speech was mostly eloquent and free of the language gaffes he admits he is famous for, he said he regretted appearing in front of a “Mission Impossible” sign during a televised address in 2003. The controversial banner referring to the U.S. mission in Iraq, actually said “Mission Accomplished.”

Last Thursday, about 300 protesters in Montreal brought on the effigy-burning and shoe-throwing, like it was old times again:

Various unions, activist and antiwar groups supported the protest.

Joan Hadrill of the Raging Grannies said she was on the street because Bush was “an alleged war criminal for his invasion of Iraq and torturing prisoners of war.”

Immigration lawyer William Sloan blamed Bush for “cynically causing a war that is responsible for so many deaths and so much destruction.”

“He set back international law into the 1700s, violating every convention possible and seeming to revel in it,” he continued.

Among the main slogan chanters was Jaggi Singh, the Montreal activist who was part of the committee that organized the protest and asked that old shoes be brought, to emulate the Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi who tossed one at Bush during a Baghdad news conference.

Various pieces of footwear were hurled high in the direction of the hotel and the line of riot police, who did not seek to arrest the throwers.

The more these idiots wax idiotic, the more I love George W. Bush!

Inside the regal Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel, a relaxed-appearing Bush spoke with very few regrets about some of the most controversial moves of his presidency.

“I am confident that I made decisions based on principle, that I made calls as best I could, and I did not sell my soul,” Bush told an audience of about 1,000 men and women at the $400-a-seat steak luncheon.

The speech, part of a cross-country tour organized in part to promote Bush’s upcoming autobiography, was followed by a question-and-answer period.

Bush began with a series of jokes about what it is like to be a former president, recounting a story of walking into a Dallas hardware store about a month after he left office. An employee of the store asked him if anyone had ever told him he looks a lot like George W. Bush.

I said, “Happens almost every day, actually” and as I’m walking away, I hear the guy saying “Sure must make you mad!”

That’s my president!

Lucianne.com:

Every now and then
we like to run this picture

This is the ditherer-in-chief.

Hmmm….

So many choices…Rocky Road or pralines and cream? Do I go with more sprinkles and nuts? Or a drawdown of toppings for my sundae….?

Threw a strike and liberated 50 million….

Threw it into the dirt and did not show support for democracy in Iran and Honduras and has liberated no one…including gays.

President Obama’s foreign policy expert, Joe Biden:

…And others, more harshly, argue that Mr. Biden’s judgment on foreign policy has often been off base.

They point out that he voted against the successful Persian Gulf war of 1991, voted for the Iraq invasion of 2003, proposed dividing Iraq into three sections in 2006 and opposed the additional troops credited by many with turning Iraq around in 2007.

“When was the last time Biden was right about anything?” Thomas E. Ricks, a military writer, wrote in a blog on Sept. 24. Mr. Ricks is affiliated with the Center for a New American Security, a research organization founded by Democrats.

President Bush’s hatchet man, Darth Cheney:

“Just show me where to point and aim this…”

A show of patriotism:

Refusal to wear patriotism on his sleeve (or on his lapel):

Former President George W. Bush looks out over the U.S. Capitol as his helicopter departs Washington, D.C. January 20, 2009, for Andrews Air Force Base following the inauguration ceremonies for President Barack Obama. (ERIC DRAPER/AFP/Getty Images)

President Bush gave an hour-and-a-half speech Wednesday night at the Wilderness Resort and Convention Center in Sevierville (Hat tip: Brutally Honest):

“Every day in the White House was a joyous day for me,” the 43rd president said. “I miss being commander and chief of our military the most. You know you live in an amazing country when we have servicemen that continually volunteer to serve their country in the face of danger. I believe we have an obligation to give our troops all the support they need to accomplish their missions.”

The former president said he still has faith that conflicts in the Middle East can eventually be resolved.

“There are individuals out there that kill to achieve their ideology,” he said. “In the United States, our ideology is our assurance to freedom. That’s what makes us great and unique.”

Bush said Japan was once a sworn enemy of the United States but is now an ally because of its desire to become a free nation.

“Something happened over the past 60 years that transformed our enemy (Japan) to an ally,” he said.

“It was their desire to become free. That same democratic core can happen in the Middle East if we don’t lose sight that people everywhere should have the right to freedom.”

Each president chooses a portrait of their favorite past president to hang in the oval office and for Bush, that was Abraham Lincoln.

“I believe Abraham Lincoln was the greatest president of all time,” Bush said.

“He believed that all men were created equal under God even during times of civil war. He believed in the spirit of freedom. I believe in God Almighty and that everyone desires to be free and want peace.”

A Methodist by faith, Bush said every American has the right to worship God in any way he or she wants.

“The President of the United States should never promote a particular religion,” he said.

“That’s just another thing that makes us such a great nation, being able to worship God as we choose.”

~~~

Bush said he was proud to represent the United States during his eight-year tenure.

“The institution of president is so much more important than the person,” he said. “I tried to bring honor to the office for eight years.”

Phil Waldrep said Bush’s comments were right on target.

“He made everyone feel at ease,” Waldrep said. “I hope everyone walked away from here with a little skip in their step. It was non-political and made me proud to be an American.”

No divisive political rhetoric; no America-bashing. Just an expression of faith, optimism, appreciation of the military, and love of country.

From President Obama’s UN speech today:

I took office at a time when many around the world had come to view America with skepticism and distrust. A part of this was due to misperceptions and misinformation about my country. Part of this was due to opposition to specific policies and a belief on, on certain critical issues, America had acted unilaterally without regard for the interests of others.

And this is has fed an almost reflexive anti-Americanism which, too often, has served as an excuse for collective inaction.

~~~

After all, it is easy to walk up to this podium and point fingers and stoke divisions. Nothing is easier than blaming others for our troubles and absolving ourselves of responsibility for our choices and our actions. Anybody can do that.

Like blaming the previous Administration for the state of affairs today and giving validity to misperceptions? Good grief!

John Bolton:

WaPo:

He drew applause when he talked about how his administration had banned torture of terror suspects,

Applause from countries who engage in torture themselves? Countries like Iran who sponsor terrorism? And what did President Obama actually change?

and was engaging with the United Nations in a more complete way than the U.S. did during the Bush administration.

How exactly is he “more engaged”? It’s a myth that the Bush Administration engaged in “unilateralism” or was a serial offender of “international law”. What it did do was (quoting President Obama in his speech) lead:

“Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world’s problems alone.”

As the French intellectual, Jean Francois-Revel might put it,

As far as America’s “unilateralism” is concerned, Revel asserts that the United States is forced to act alone because Europe has repeatedly failed to act in the cause of collective security.

WaPo:

But the new U.S. president also acknowledged that the United States and its world partners over time have failed to confront some of the world’s problems seriously.

“If we are honest with ourselves, we need to admit that we are not living up to that responsibility,” Obama said.

“We can be remembered as a generation that chose to drag the arguments of the 20th century into the 21st; that put off hard choices, refused to look ahead, and failed to keep pace because we defined ourselves by what we were against instead of what we were for. Or, we can be a generation that chooses to see the shoreline beyond the rough waters ahead; that comes together to serve the common interests of human beings, and finally gives meaning to the promise embedded in the name given to this institution: the United Nations.”

Kristen Silverberg writing for Shadow Government regarding a NYTimes piece on the U.N. General Assembly and the concept of Responsibility to Protect, endorsed unanimously by heads of state in 2005:

There was one line in the Times piece that, I think, bears correcting. The author says that the Bush administration “disliked the doctrine on the ground that it might tie American hands in foreign policy decisions.” In fact, the Bush administration endorsed R2P in 2005 and worked throughout the administration to see the principle put into practice. Secretary Rice, for example, cited R2P in calling on the Security Council to act in Darfur, and has many times cited her disappointment that we were not more successful in ensuring effective R2P action. We worked with other Security Council members to reaffirm R2P in U.N. Security Council resolution 1674, and as an assistant secretary of state, I endorsed the concept publicly many times.

If anything, I think the Bush team was more aggressive than most U.S. administrations in pressing both the responsibility of states to protect their citizens from human rights abuses and the responsibility of the Security Council to act when governments fail. For most of U.S. history, the human rights abuses in Burma, for example, would not have fit within the U.S. government’s definition of a “threat to international peace and security” sufficient to trigger U.N. Security Council jurisdiction. President Bush believed that human rights abuses may meet this standard, and so we led the effort to place Burma on the Security Council’s agenda for the first time in history and even pressed a Security Council Resolution on the subject to the point of provoking a double Russian-Chinese veto.

I see this as another slam at the Bush Administration:

Democracy cannot be imposed on any nation from the outside. Each society must search for its own path, and no path is perfect. Each country will pursue a path rooted in the culture of its people and in its past traditions, and I admit that America has, too often, been selective in its promotion of democracy.

But that does not weaken our commitment. It only reinforces it. There are basic principles that are universal. There are certain truths which are self-evident, and the United States of America will never waiver in our efforts to stand up for the right of people everywhere to determine their own destiny.

There is a certain belief that the Bush Administration was trying to impose western-style democracy. But I don’t know of a single speech where President Bush made the case for creating a democracy that would look like ours.

More reminders of what we have lost in the Bush Thankathon archive.

Iraqi government TV has been playing patriotic music to celebrate the U.S. military withdrawal from cities, towns and villages across the country, officially set to be completed by Tuesday June 30th.

Iraqi military vehicles were also covered with flowers to celebrate the event, and military parades, complete with band music, were organized in Diyala and Diwania provinces.

The government declared a “Day of National Sovereignty” to mark the event, and has invited ordinary citizens to join evening celebrations at Baghdad’s Zawra Park for a festival of music and poetry.

Interior Minister Jawad Boulani told journalists the U.S. withdrawal is almost complete and Iraqi forces are capable of maintaining order across the country.

He says he believes Iraq’s security situation is under control. “I do not think we need to declare a curfew,” he insisted.

Why, their hiding because they said this day would never come. The left and the MSM (synonymous really) believed Bush would ruin everything he touches and now that they have been proven wrong they just ignore it or believe Obama fixed it, by doing the same thing as Bush of course, but why ruin a fantasy. They tell us all that Obama inherited this recession, its not his fault while at the same time trying to sell the case that he did not inherit the Bush victory in Iraq….it’s all him baby…..sigh.

Anyways, congrats to the Iraqi’s for proving that human beings, no matter where they live, DO want to live in freedom.

SANTIAGO, Chile Nov 20, 2004 President Bush stepped into the middle of a confrontation and pulled his lead Secret Service agent away from Chilean security officials who barred his bodyguards from entering an elegant dinner for 21 world leaders Saturday night.

Several Chilean and American agents got into a pushing and shoving match outside the cultural center where the dinner was held. Bush noticed the fracas after posing for pictures on a red carpet with the summit host, Chilean President Ricardo Lagos and his wife and first lady Laura Bush.

Abandoning the other three, Bush walked over to the agents, reached through the dispute and pulled his agent from the scrum.

The president, looking irritated, walked away with the agent. The incident was shown on APEC television.

“Chilean security tried to stop the president’s Secret Service from accompanying him,” said White House deputy press secretary Claire Buchan. “He told them they were with him and the issue was resolved.”

This video of the President not hesitating one second to turn around and wade into a crowd of people to save one of his own bodyguards show’s once more the true character of this man. This guy really does have balls and I am even more proud to have him as our President. What do you think Kerry would of done, not a damn thing, he probably would of called the agent a son of a bitch for holding up his picture taking time.

Wizbang has some thoughts which quite frankly make a lot of sense. I’m glad he is the type of man that would take this action but it just wasn’t a smart security action. It could of been a ruse to create a disturbance while someone assassinated the President….and where was the rest of his detail to stop him from going in there like that? I’m sure this agent is taking some ribbing from his co-workers, having to be saved by the man he was supposed to protect, funny stuff.