This is what Bush said today:

Now, as far as my own personal popularity goes, I don’t make decisions based upon polls. I hope the American people appreciate that. You can’t make difficult decisions if you have to take a poll. That’s been my style ever since I’ve been the President. And, of course, I rely upon good people. Of course, you got to as the President of the United States. You set the space, you set the strategy, you hold people to account. But yeah, I’m relying upon good people.  That’s why Admiral Allen is here. He’s good man. He can do the job. That’s why General Honore is here.

Wow.  Kind of reminds me of a post I wrote only two days ago, entitled "Good People".  That’s part of what makes this president so incompetent — he doesn’t surround himself with good people.  If that isn’t apparent to him by now, then he’s truly insane.  Or lying.

Bush continues:

And so when I come into a briefing, I don’t tell them what to do. They tell me the facts on the ground, and my question to them is, do you have what you need.

So he gets the "facts on the ground" from his "good people"?  Um, no.  Here’s the follow-up question:

QUESTION: Did they misinform you when you said that no one anticipated the breach of the levees?

PRESIDENT BUSH: No, what I was referring to is this. When that storm came by, a lot of people said we dodged a bullet. When that storm came through at first, people said, whew. There was a sense of relaxation, and that’s what I was referring to. And I, myself, thought we had dodged a bullet. You know why? Because I was listening to people, probably over the airways, say, the bullet has been dodged. And that was what I was referring to.

So you surround yourself with "good people", and yet you get your information from the "airways" [sic – he means "airwaves"].  Doesn’t that contradict what you said mere moments earlier — i.e., that you get your facts from your "good people" who are "on the ground"?

Then there’s this:

QUESTION: Mr. President, where were you when you realized the severity of the storm?

PRESIDENT BUSH: I was — I knew that a big storm was coming on Monday, so I spoke to the country on Monday* morning about it. I said, there’s a big storm coming.

Most of the country knew by Sunday that there was a big storm coming.  By the way, the storm made landfall at 6:10 am CDT on Monday morning.  Bush’s first public speaking engagement was at 9:06 am (CDT), when he spoke about Medicate to an elderly audience in Arizona (it was not "speaking to the country" in any sense of the word) — see accompanying picture.  Even then, Bush acknowledged that the storm was here, not "coming" (see White House transcript).

I think Bush really does believe what he is spouting off.  It’s simply egregious lying.

Now, he MAY have meant to say "Sunday", but who knows?  In any event, you would think that, given the controversy surrounding the federal governments lack-of-response, Bush would take the time to know the facts cold about events that transpired within the past two weeks.

Or is that expecting too much?

[Transcript of recent press conference from Josh Marshall]