19 Feb 07 Bush

A young girl asks on YouTube — why do people hate Bush? My response:

In terms of individual things he’s done, I could go on for years, but it boils down, I think to this: I don’t feel that he values that very thing you asked us for: civility. I don’t believe he treats his opponents with respect, nor do I believe he encourages civility or respect in his political party. I think that he refuses to be flexible, even the tiniest bit, in the way he thinks, and because of that, he is very locked into the world the way he sees it, even if that vision is wrong. I think that this inflexibility has led to an incredibly frightening and grevious mistake: us taking over Iraq, and then staying in there, despite the fact that it had nothing to do with the people who attacked us in 2001. I think because of that, over three thousand soldiers have died, and three thousand families grieve for their loss, and thousands more soldiers have suffered life-changing injuries (they’ve lost arms, feet, hands, etc.). I also think that this inflexibility has led him to ignore things that he is supposed to do as the most important official of our government, such as respecting the laws of the Constitution and the Geneva Convention. These two mistakes I’ve described are perhaps the worst things you can do as a President. It’s because of that, and because of the hurt and pain he has caused our country, that I hate his actions, what he’s done, and why I don’t want him to be the President any longer.

Unfortunately, it looks from her follow-up comments as if she really wasn’t interested in an answer … not a surprise amongst the neocons.