Dan Bartlett: Bush Not Incompetent. American Public Disagrees
Reported by Marie Therese - March 23, 2006
This morning onf FOX & Friends, White House Counselor Dan Bartlett defended the President against increasing criticisms that he is "dangerously incompetent" and sees the world through "rose-colored glasses." F&F host Steve Doocy accomodated Bartlet with a series of softball questions. Doocy said, "In the meantime the Democrats' top Senator, Harry Reid, yesterday said that President Bush is quote 'dangerously incompetent' when he referred to how the President's successor would likely be responsible for deciding when U. S. troops leave. How do you respond to that 'dangerously incompetent' remark?"
Bartlett responded, "Well, I think it's an indicator of why he's the minority leader and not the majority leader. Too often Democrats aren't providing alternatives or hope or optimism or any constructive criticism about how we can succeed in Iraq or elsewhere when it comes to the issues here at home And they seem more interested in name calling and trying to put out talking points calling him incompetent. I don't think that's what the American people want. I think they want to see their leaders coming together. The President has worked across party lines when it comes to the war, but too often we've seen the Democratic leadership finding reason not to support the President, not to do the things we need to do to protect our country and, instead, result (sic) in name-calling and I don't think that's very constructive for the type of historic times we live in."
Dan Bartlett must be wearing the same rose-colored glasses his boss is. First of all, it's the AMERICAN PEOPLE who think Bush is "incompetent" as you can see from the following results of a Pew Research Center poll released on March 15th. As you can see from the chart below, "incompetent" is the word Americans most often use when the name "George Bush" enters the conversation.
The President seems to spend less and less time working and more and more time jawboning about how hard his job is and what great progress he's making on all fronts.
How would George Bush know that his job is hard? He's never at his desk unless there's a photographer around. Kind of reminds me of those three-martini bosses I used to work for. They got the big paychecks, were never in their offices and left the day-to-day operations to underpaid middle management types, who got all the flack if anything went wrong, but reaped none of the rewards when things went right.
As for Steve Doocy, he should have been aware of the Pew Research poll. He and his cohorts discussed it the day it came out!
