Great Responsibility

Let's take a break from the "Did Bush Lie" Debate for a moment. Being politics and all, proving such a thing in a court of law (public opinion is very different) will take some time and money, and quite honestly there are better venues for both. While it's common knowledge (to those who follow politics regularly, anyway) that Bush has a very small circle of people he gets advice from, it's very likely that he'd blame any "misunderstanding" of information on the CIA. It would then be up to the CIA to prove that they didn't change any information Bush didn't ask them to, which is highly unlikely at this stage.

But there's a different debate that hasn't gotten much airtime: what is Bush's responsibility in all of this? When he was declaring that "major combat" was over (a very slick way of phrasing the situation, BTW) under a "Mission Accomplished" banner, I don't remember hearing him mention a bi-partisan Congress backing his play. Sure he thanked Rumsfeld and the troops, but not one congratulatory remark was directed at a Senator or Congressman. He did, however:

1. Invoke memories of WWII (even though most his audience was probably too young to recall the actual events)
2. Mention that "men and women in every culture need liberty like they need food and water and air."
3. Invoke 9/11 in a way that could make you think there was a connection between it and Iraq.
4. Went on to say shortly after: "The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We've removed an ally of al Qaeda, and cut off a source of terrorist funding."
5. Pretty much declare that while he would never give an official withdrawal time, he's provide plenty of false hope: "The war on terror is not over; yet it is not endless. We do not know the day of final victory, but we have seen the turning of the tide."

Did I mention that he was up on the podium all by himself?

Now, with all those people daring to question the motives of the war, President Bush has switched to "I thought we were all in this together!" mode, which is just perplexing. How many stories were written and/or published about him being the proverbial "cowboy" who goes it alone, logic be damned? 50? 1,000? Yet now, now with things being unavoidingly bad -the polls and the pictures can't both be lying all the time, can they?- he wants to be a team player? Now he wants to form Voltron? Give me a break.

When everything was hunky-dory, five-by-five, he was on top of a mountain by himself. You could tell with each following speech that between the minor acknowledgements here and there to the "supporting cast" he was patting himself on the back as the star. Now that masses have seen some of the "behind-the-scenes", and they realize that the movie wasn't so great. People want answers and they're not getting them.

But instead of taking responsibility, Bush has decided to duck. He's decided to take a "if I'm going down, I won't go alone" mentality. What happened to "honor and dignity?"