BUSH vs OBAMA: YEARNING FOR CLASS IN THE PRESIDENCY

I’m reprinting, without attribution, one of those forwarded emails. The originator is anonymous. (I have checked the accuracy of the selections.)

The Difference Between “Class” and “an Ass”

George W. Bush statement December 14, 2003 announcing the capture of Saddam Hussein.

Good afternoon. Yesterday, December the 13th, at around 8:30 p.m. Baghdad time, United States military forces captured Saddam Hussein alive. He was found near a farmhouse outside the city of Tikrit, in a swift raid conducted without casualties. And now the former dictator of Iraq will face the justice he denied to millions. . . .

. . . The success of yesterday’s mission is a tribute to our men and women now serving in Iraq. The operation was based on the superb work of intelligence analysts who found the dictator’s footprints in a vast country. The operation was carried out with skill and precision by a brave fighting force. Our servicemen and women and our coalition allies have faced many dangers in the hunt for members of the fallen regime, and in their effort to bring hope and freedom to the Iraqi people. Their work continues, and so do the risks. Today, on behalf of the nation, I thank the members of our Armed Forces and I congratulate ’em.

And Now Classless

The Obama Speech May 1, 2011

. . . And so shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of my war against al Qaeda, even as I continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat his network.
. . . Then, last August, after years of painstaking work by the intelligence community, I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden. It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground. I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan. And finally, last week, I determined that I had enough intelligence to take action, and I authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice.
. . . Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. . . . [T]hey killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.