The Post: In Iraq, there's been a steady stream of surprises. We weren't welcomed as liberators, as Vice President Cheney had talked about. We haven't found the weapons of mass destruction as predicted. The postwar process hasn't gone as well as some had hoped. Why hasn't anyone been held accountable, either through firings or demotions, for what some people see as mistakes or misjudgments?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we had an accountability moment, and that's called the 2004 election. And the American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me, for which I'm grateful.
To reiterate my point from a little while back, the parallels to Nixon's second term provide a glimmer of hope. He had his far more dramatic "accountability" moment against George McGovern, yet ended up faced with another one before he'd served his four years. It will be very hard, given the Republicans' dominance in Congress, but I don't want to give up the hope of similar mid-term moment where Bush is concerned.
