re: George W. Bush first pitch after 9/11

Too bad he didn't go away when his dad did.

I don't know if he's a good man because hubris and stupidity and aloofness are all characteristics that should be counted in that assessment.

I do think - unlike most politicians at the highest level and especially among wealthy politicians - Bush was capable of relating to and genuinely showing affection for grieving people. I don't think Bush viewed the immediate aftermath as a crisis to manage for his legacy or political thing to navigate. I think he mourned the losses like a real person and led the country like a real human being would do in the immediate aftermath.

Bush wasn't and isn't selfless, but I think he was capable of some degree of selflessness in a way that is waaaaayyyy out of the norm for political animals. I think in his later years he's attempted to soothe his internal demons (war deaths he arguably caused, but which I think he likely does feel actual grief over). In part of that he's sought to avoid political pettiness in a way that has abandoned a lot of us, ignoring the real damage his cocktail party friends are doing to those of us living on the ground in this country.

In some ways I think Bush is more normal than average, but that shouldn't be viewed as making him simple. I'd say it makes him more complicated. Most politicians are not complicated. They're extreme narcissists and tunnel vision psychopaths who feel nothing when soldiers die in battle, when they take from the people, when they squander the country's resources, etc.

Say what you will about Bush, and there is a lot to say, but throwing the first pitch right down the heart of the plate like that was awesome.

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Really weird how everyone always seems to forget that they did indeed find chemical weapons.

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Come on man… don’t do that

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Saddam was supposed to have active chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons programs. All they found were a handful of rusty drums

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That Diddy Bush helped sell to them in the 80’s.

GWB was an empathetic man, and that’s just not common in modern US presidents. I think only Jimmy Carter matches him in that department, though Obama could show flashes of it. Clinton, Reagan, Daddy Bush, and Trump had/have little. Unfortunately empathy is seen by many to be a weakness.

gWB’s biggest downfall though was surrounding himself with evil men, and that’s a major character flaw.

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Really weird how everyone always seems to forget that they did indeed find chemical weapons. On more than one occasion.

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Also how Saddam gassed the Kurds with chemical weapons multiple times in the 1990's after Desert Storm.

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Bush was right to invade Iraq and kill Saddam. We had to get rid of the monster we had enabled in order to counter the Ayatollah’s. The hubris of nation building is where he went wrong. We have failed miserably at that. Once we killed Saddam, we should have found another, more compliant, version, installed him and left.

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I can’t believe anyone would post this after what’s happened the last 20 years.

Just mind blowing.

We had no business removing Sadaam and no business opposing the Ayatollahs. Middle Easterners don’t see anyone we install as legitimate.

Yeah ok. frick that dude.