You’ve probably already seen President Obama’s speech at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner, but it’s simply too good not to share. Grab some popcorn and watch the whole thing.
Tonight, I watched George W. Bush’s first major interview since he left the White House nearly two years ago. In the interview, Matt Lauer asks him about a passage in his book where he refers to the “worst moment of his presidency.” Can you guess which event he was referring to?
In case you’re having trouble remembering the Bush years, here’s a list of things that happened while “Dubya” was Commander-in-Chief:
Man, that’s a depressing list and it’d sure be hard to pick a worst. Hey, wait a minute - why is Kanye West on the list? That couldn’t possibly be the moment he considered to be the worst of his presidency… could it?
LAUER: You say you told Laura at the time it was the worst moment of your Presidency?
BUSH: Yes.
LAUER: I wonder if some people are gonna read that, now that you’ve written it, and they might give you some heat for that. And the reason is this—
BUSH: Don’t care.
Oh. My. God.
The last two years haven’t been all sunshine and lollipops, but I suddenly remember why there were ridicuously giant parties on election night 2008.
Update: Brian Leli took all of the feelings I was experiencing after watching the Bush interview and put them into words. I could spend the next two weeks writing about how that left me feeling and not come up with a piece this nice:
When the beast that was the Bush administration ran out of steam, its effects were so atrocious that they inspired a majority of Americans to act. I do not think it’s a stretch to say that we were inspired by our outrage for what was, and by our hope for what could be. We demanded progress and change. All together. And one by one.
There was a natural high that came over people. I saw it in the eyes and attitudes of the thousands walking through Chicago’s Grant Park, waiting to hear from our newly elected President Barack Obama.
Seriously, go read it.
After Scott Brown’s won Massachusetts special senate election in January, Republicans reacted as though they had defeated Health Care Reform once-and-for-all. Jonathan Chait, however, predicted that Health Care Reform was not dead — and that opponents of the billwould not react kindly to the its ultimate passage:
You can imagine how this feels to conservatives. They’ve already run off the field, sprayed themselves with champagne and taunted the losing team’s fans. And now the other team is saying the game is still on and they have a good chance to win. There may be nothing wrong at all with the process, but it’s certainly going to feel like some kind of crime to the right-wing. The Democrats may not win, but I’m pretty sure they’re going to try. The conservative freakout is going to be something to behold. Despite his prescience on the bill and the freakout to follow, I doubt he would have predicted just how nasty things would get. The passage of the Health Care Reform Bill has inspired some truly insane and hatefulreactions, leading law enforcement to offer at least 10 members of congress additional security. Did I fall asleep or something? What freakin’ decade is this? (link via Daring Fireball)
