Examining the Bush legacy in 'The Decider'

After electing George W. Bush twice, in November 2006 American voters sent him an angry message.

BUSH DURING A WHITE HOUSE PRESSER ON NOVEMBER 6, 2006:  What's changed today is the election is over, and the Democrats won.

The president's approval rating had gone from a post-9/11 high of 90 percent all the way down to 31 percent.  So what happened? Two words:  Iraq and Katrina. It goes back to 2003 when Bush, having declared victory, decided to delegate the Iraq occupation, essentially outsourcing war policy to Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney.

WOODWARD: If you look at it, he subcontracted and outsourced a lot.

In May 2003 he asked ambassador Paul Brewer to head up the transition from American occupation to Iraqi rule.   Bremer would report to Rumsfeld.

PAUL BREMER, FORMER DIRECTOR OF RECONSTRUCTION AND HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE FOR POST-WAR IRAQ: Our job is to turn and help the Iraqi people regain control their own destiny.

Bremer made two decisions that many critics argue set the stage for the Iraqi insurgency. He disbanded the Iraqi army and removed Saddam's Ba'ath party members from the new government both complete reversals of Bush's earlier policy.

Video   Iraq, Katrina allow Democrats to take Congress Dec. 29: Unhappy with the way the Bush administration handled the war in Iraq as well as the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, voters showed their dissent by electing Democrats to the House of Representatives allowing them to take full control. Hardball

ROBERT DRAPER, AUTHOR: When I asked President Bush about  these rather consequential decisions. He said to me, "You know, I don't really remember.  You should talk to Hadley, his national security advisor. I thought this was very telling, in terms of how detached he was.

As Iraq descended into a bloody quagmire, Donald Rumsfeld's master plan for a fairly light force of troops was exposed as dangerously flawed. 

Those troops faced growing insurgency and a potential civil war while the administration denied its existence.

RUMSFELD PRESSER ON JUNE 30, 2003: I guess the reason I don't use the phrase "guerrilla war" is because there isn't one.

At the same time Iraq was becoming a nest for outside terrorists.

PRIEST: They were wrong that doing what they did in Iraq would affect—counter-terrorism.  And, in fact,  it just served to do the opposite.  It drew new recruits into Iraq. 

As the war raged on, we learned the administration was wrong about something else.  Saddam had not possessed weapons of mass destruction.

FLEISCHER: Arab intelligence was wrong.  Israeli intelligence was wrong.  German intelligence was wrong.  This was the tragedy.  We went to war for a reason that turned out to be wrong.

After all the rhetoric, it turned out there never really was a mushroom cloud, just a smokescreen. And the news kept getting worse: Shocking photos from Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad exposed widespread mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers giving America a huge black eye internationally. 

BUSH PRESSER ON OCTOBER 5, 2007: This government does not torture people.

DRAPER: We began to see a growing credibility chasm, not just a gap, but a chasm—that—that owes itself to the president telling us that we're on a certain path, though the facts on the ground suggest otherwise.

And that credibility chasm was about to get deeper in August 2005 when a new storm appeared on the horizon back at home.

MCCLELLAN: Katrina left an indelible stain on this presidency.

Hurricane Katrina exposed a dysfunctional federal bureaucracy, and a president who appeared to be out of touch.

SUSKIND: When you're operating on instinct, on gut, from inside a bubble, the bubble of the Oval Office, the world kind of goes to hell.  You can't run the world that way. It's too big and too complicated.

BUSH PRESSER: Again I wanna thank you all and, Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job.

As people stood in desperation on their rooftops and in the new orleans Superdome, the President had a photo taken from air force one.  The Decider was now the Observer.

FORMER GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO, D- LA.: If, instead of a fly over, he had flown in, and walked with me in the streets,  it may have spurred the action that never—never really occurred.

HAYES: I think what Katrina did more than anything was—take suspicions that the American public had after the execution of post-war Iraq. It took those concerns and it basically confirmed them.

And in November 2006 Americans responded at the voting booth, giving Democrats a majority in both houses of Congress...a clear rebuke to the president.

BUSH WHITE HOUSE PRESSER ON NOVEMBER 8, 2006: If you look at race by race, it was close. The cumulative effect, however, was not too close. It was a thumpin'.

That thumping led him to make a decision he had resisted just months earlier.

BUSH ON APRIL 18, 2006:  "Now I know the speculation. But I'm the Decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense.”

BUSH WHITE HOUSE PRESSER ON NOVEMBER 11, 2008:  Now, after a series of thoughtful conversations, Secretary Rumsfeld and I agreed that the timing is right for new leadership at the Pentagon.

Although Bush called it a resignation, he had fired Donald Rumsfeld.  Vice president Cheney, a close friend and colleague of Rumsfeld wasn't happy. 

WOODWARD: He didn't consult Dick Cheney.  He called him in a day or two before it happened and President Bush said, "I'm replacing Rumsfeld.”  Cheney said, and I think this is significant, he said—"Well, I disagree, Mr. President, but it's, obviously, your call.”

It marked a waning of Cheney's influence.  With Rumsfeld gone and Robert Gates in at Defense, the president decided to implement a new war strategy.

BUSH ON JANUARY 10, 2007: I've committed more than 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq. The vast majority of them—five brigades—will be deployed to Baghdad.

It became known as ‘the surge,' and Bush had the man to make it happen:  General David Petraeus.

PRIEST: General Petraeus will be one of the heroes of this era because he has adapted the strategy to the situation. And with some luck on the ground, things that were happening there within the Iraq population—he's taken advantage of that. 

Sen. Barack Obama and other Democrats opposed the surge, as did some Republicans. But over the course of 2007 and 2008, the strategy took shape and largely succeeded in drawing down the violence.

GERSON: I think that that decision, which was controversial even within the administration, is going to be remembered as one of the President's—contributions after—after he's gone.

WOODWARD: Iraq is much better—more stable, less violent—but the war isn't over. They worry about the next surprise, ‘cause that's what Iraq has done—continually dealt surprises.

In the waning days of the Bush administration, the numbers speak for themselves: more than 4,000 U.S. troops killed, 30,000 wounded and tens of thousands of Iraqis dead.

(Bush on "Meet the Press" on February 8, 2004.)

TIM RUSSERT, MEET THE PRESS HOST: Do you believe the war in Iraq is a war of choice or a war of necessity?

BUSH: I think that's an interesting question. Please elaborate on that a little bit. A war of choice or a war of necessity? It's a war of necessity. We - in my judgment, we had no choice when we look at the intelligence I looked at that says the man was a threat.

VANDEN HEUVEL: It was a war of choice.  It was not a war of necessity.  The world was against it. 

FLEISCHER: That region was a powder keg.  I'm glad that Saddam Hussein's finger has been removed from the powder keg.  So, I don't believe it was a mistake.  But the majority of the American people do.

MORE FROM HARDBALL

Hardball Section Front

Is Cheney’s opposition to Obama absolute? More advertisers drop Tiger Woods Christie enjoys home state favorite Jakarta plans tribute to Obama Changing the public option Cheney accuses Obama of treason GOP outraged over Reid’s slavery comparison Afghan realities become clearer Obama claims his prize How rogue will Palin go? Hardball Section Front   Add Hardball headlines to your news reader: