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Linda Grabel’s Concern
For me the most telling moment of last Friday’s
debate came at the very end. Town hall guest Linda
Grabel, in delivering the final question, asked the
president to identify three times in his presidency
when he realized he’d made a wrong decision
and what he did to correct it. Having just watched
eighty some minutes of the commander-in-chief wink,
smirk, and shout, the moment took on a decidedly classroom
air. The gray-haired Ms. Grabel had unexpectedly become
the concerned 1st Grade teacher, who at the end of
the year was trying to assess the degree to which
her slapdash pupil had matured.
Unfortunately for Ms. Grabel, and for us voters,
George W. Bush remained petulant. He deflected the
question by claiming that he’ll accept what
historians say were his tactical mistakes, and then
he reframed the question to suit his own wants. The
dissatisfaction on Grabel’s face was palpable.
Following the debate she approached the president
on the floor in another fruitless attempt (if my lip-reading
is correct) to receive a sincere answer to her question.
Some might argue that no-one could ever expect the
president to admit that invading Iraq sans weapons
of mass destruction was a mistake or that massive
tax cuts for the wealthiest one percent Americans
was a bad move. His presidency rests on the accuracy
of these decisions. But Ms. Grabel wasn’t asking
for him to do so. She was simply looking for any wrong
decision, no matter how small, to be acknowledged
by her president, and then to be enlightened on the
ways he went about making things right.
It should have been a softball question for the president.
One he could have spun out of the ballpark, forever
putting to rest the accusation that his autocratic
fetish for appearing resolute forbids him from ever
rectifying (much less acknowledging) a mistake.
For example, he might have said this: “Linda,
I originally opposed the creation of an outside investigation
of the government’s failures before 9/11 because
of concerns of protecting the methods in which our
Intelligence is gathered. But later I realized that
this was a wrong decision, because above all I am
a steward of the people and the people were demanding
such an investigation. So, after being assured that
our national security secrets would be protected,
I gave approval for the creation of the 9/11 commission
and now am working to implement its recommendations.”
Or he could have said: “Linda, I made a wrong
decision when I initially stood against the formation
of the Department of Homeland Security because, at
the time, I felt that another level of bureaucracy
was the last thing we needed. But then I came to the
conclusion that we could set it up in a way wouldn’t
drown our intelligence agencies in red tape and other
bureaucratic nightmares. So I appointed Tom Ridge
to head up the department and he’s done a wonderful
job at helping to keep our country safe.”
The veracity of these statements could have been
challenged by John Kerry but they would have at least
been answers. And many viewers would have been satisfied.
But the president just couldn’t bring himself
to do it, and that is what makes millions of Americans,
like Linda Grabel, extremely concerned. They are well
aware that pride goeth before a fall and that wrong
decisions have a tendency to explode exponentially
when ignored. Or as the American writer Pearl Buck
wisely observed, “Every great mistake has a
halfway moment, a split second when it can be recalled
and perhaps remedied.”
For U.S. voters that moment will arrive November
2nd.
| D.A. Blyler is the author of
the novel Steffi’s Club. His essays have
appeared at Salon.com, The Korean Herald, Bangkok’s
The Nation, and other international and online
publications. A lecturer at Rajabhat University
Rajanagarindra, he makes his home in Thailand.
His latest novel can be purchased at Amazon.com. |
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