President scandal

Green scandal..

The Goal: Admitting Failure, Without Being a

Failure

By DAVID GREENBERG

Published: January 14, 2007

PRESIDENT BUSH’S speech Wednesday night had to strike a perf

ect pitch. He had to defend the war that will define his leg

acy while admitting to enough error to regai

n credibility with the public. Consequently, commentators

are still trying to figure out whether he conceded mistakes, showed regret or intends to change course at all.

George Tames/The New York Times

KENNEDY ON THE BAY OF PIGS “Victory has a hundred fathers, but defeat is an orphan. ... I am the responsible officer of the government.”

NIXON ON WATERGATE “I regret deeply any injuries that may have been done in the course of the events that led to this decision.”

Dennis Cook/Associated Press

REAGAN ON IRAN-CONTRA “A few months a

go I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that’s true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not.”

Paul Hosefros/The New York Times

CLINTON ON THE MONICA LEWINSKY SCANDAL “I misled people, including even my wife. I deeply regret that.”

In this respect, Mr. Bush’s speech follows in that great American oratorical tradition: the presidential mea culpa.

Figuring out how to acknowledge failure without seeming like a failure is a time-honored occupational hazard of politics. But not until the 20th century did presidents govern mainly by mobilizing public opinion through rhetoric, and only with the rise of broadcasting did the celebrated “televised speech to the nation” become a staple of White House damage control.

While these confessions may work in the short term, they rarely work long-term magic. That typically requires a new course of action.