Martin Bashir Reminds Mitt’s Angry ‘Minions’ What Bush Sounded Like

Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 01:47 pm

Read: Kristi Noem Is Banned From 20% of South Dakota.

Tonight on MSNBC, Martin Bashir took the criticism of “Mitt’s minions” against President Obama’s moment of honesty to draw a clear contrast between the way President Obama handled the question, “Have you made any mistakes?” and the way former President Bush handled the same question.

Joining Bashir were Joy Reid of the Grio and Ari Melber of the Nation. Watch here:

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Bashir, likening the reaction of Mitt’s minions to acting like a pack of starved jackals, was confused as to why the Right wing was criticizing Obama’s self-reflective response, while championing a man like George W Bush who could not answer the question.

Bush ended up saying “You know I just ah…. ” looks down, blows air out of his mouth, “I’m sure something will pop into my head in the midst of this press conference with all of this pressure of trying to come up with an answer.” Trademark W smirk. “But…. hadn’t yet.”

Ah, we see. Yes, that is so much better than:

Obama, looking off deep in thought, “The mistake of my first ter– couple of years, was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right.” Pause while this sinks in. Brain is still working, more to say, “And that’s important. But you know the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people, that um gives them a sense of unity and purpose and optimism — especially during tough times.”

Poor Martin Bashir. The man has so much class he simply can’t understand the Right wing culture. One day it will dawn on him that they like Bush’s failure to reflect. They love Bush precisely because he couldn’t answer the most basic question. You see, Martin, he’s just like them.

President Obama was absolutely right about his mistake — it’s something we’ve mentioned (a lot) at PoliticusUSA. The President overestimated the American people’s intelligence and he failed to explain and sell his policies in a way the general public could understand. Unlike Bush, he didn’t mail our tax rebates to us – he just did them in the best way for the tax code, and that meant we just got them and never had an Obama parade over it.

President Obama is a wonky, policy oriented guy buried under a great orator. Now you know why the Right hates him. He’s charismatic, smart, calm, deliberative and admits when he’s wrong about something. He’s your basic good human. Not perfect. But good.

Now, replay that clip and watch your former President speaking. Watch the air get sucked outta him as he struggles to rub two brain cells together. It’s not that he’s dumb, it’s that he isn’t smart. Bush knew things, but he couldn’t take information and process it and apply it, and he certainly couldn’t do it under pressure. Expecting him to be self-reflective is like denying climate change. Oh.

So there you have it. You Friday night fright – – a Bush flashback. America, don’t let this happen to you again.

Sarah Jones

Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.

Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.

Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.

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