Paul Begala: Anyone who believes anything Bush says is a FOOL!

[Lex]

He said this on Anderson Cooper's 360 show.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. After he said Bush is a "decent man?"

WTF?

[mazzarro]

2. Yea! you've nailed my frustration with democrats

We constantly undercut our charges against W* and his lying administration - for every critical comment a democrat wants to make about W*, it is preceded with a praise of some sort or countervailing statement. Yet democrats keep asking why a good portion of the populace still supports him! We are our own enemies!

[elperromagico]

3. "Well, he's a great guy... but you know he eats babies."

:P

[pretzel4gore]

4. john kerry said 'he won every debate...'

on the daily show....which is debateable at best... bush won the debates only because the mediawhores (incessantly) say so; and they also say 'bush is god, worship him or die!' (??!!)

[elperromagico]

5. Kerry said that to build expectations for Bush.

Bush is a frequent beneficiary of low expectations.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

7. I agree he benefits from low expectations

But is that what one wants in a leader?

"Oh he fucked up but not as badly as I thought he would. I think I'll vote for him". PLEASE!!!!!

[elperromagico]

8. I really don't understand why anyone would expect less than the best

from their President. And why this obsession with having a President you want to have a beer with?

I don't want to have a beer with my President; I want to know that he's doing his goddamn job.

[Lex]

6. According to the transcripts, here's the exact quote:

.
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BEGALA: Well, it's certainly negative for President Bush. I think it has been maybe the most scurrilous and dishonest thing that President Bush and Vice President Cheney have done, to try to conflate 9/11 and the war in Iraq. No serious person believes we would have had a war in Iraq if there hadn't been 9/11. That is, I think they used...

COOPER: But out of the convention, though, people's opinions were changed. I mean, you know, the number of people...

BEGALA: Right. They're being...

COOPER: ... supporting the war went up.

BEGALA: They're being misled. They're being misled to believe there was some sort...

BEGALA: ... of linkage -- no, they're foolish if they believe the president. I hate to say that. He's a basically decent guy. But he has consciously tried to conflate the worst terrorism attack in American history with Iraq, which had absolutely nothing to do with it. And God bless Colin Powell for having the integrity to tell the truth. Vice President Cheney knows there was no linkage. Once -- once -- President Bush admitted the truth and said there was no linkage between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein.

BEGALA: Anderson, we've got over 1,000 troops who've died in this war, and they died because the president told us there was a threat. They died because the president and vice president suggested there was linkages between Iraq and 9/11. It turns out, none of those things were true. Somebody should be held accountable for that, and if John Kerry can hold George W. Bush accountable for those misstatements, for that misleading, he's going to win the election.

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http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0409/13/acd.01.html