Gibson: Do you feel in any way responsible for what’s happening?

Bush: You know, I’m the President during this period of time, but I think when the history of this period is written, people will realize a lot of the decisions that were made on Wall Street took place over a decade or so, before I arrived in President, during I arrived in President.

It was only a few years ago that President Bush gave a video tour of the Oval Office during which he said, among other things:

 

The other paintings on the wall are from Texas. This is…Onderdonk…a man named Julian Onderdonk painted these paintings…a man named Julian Onderdonk was the artist.

 

*****

 

This also is a Texas painting by a man named Tom Lee. he’s a personal friend of Laura and mine. He passed away unfortunately this year…th..this painting here [same painting -- ED] is by Tom Lee he was a personal friend of Laura and mine. He was from El Paso, Texas.

 

*****

 

And finally, um, the final painting is also a Julian Onderdonk.  Its a beautiful setting of Texas bluebonnets which is the Texas fla…uh, th…th…the painting is a setting of Texas bluebonnets…its done by Julian Onderdonk.

 

Listening to this Ivy League smartypants for the next four to eight will take some getting used to. But we’re Americans – somehow I think we’ll manage.

MSNBC’s less interesting coverage:

In an unusually candid discussion yesterday, Clinton said he was particularly unhappy that two of his appointees – Laura D’Andrea Tyson as chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisors and Carol Browner as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency – were being treated by some women’s advocates as less important than other appointees because their jobs are not Cabinet level.

“I believe that if I had appointed white men to those jobs, those people, those same people would have been counting those jobs in a very negative way,” he said. “They would have been counting those positions against our administration, those bean counters who are doing that, if I had appointed white men to those positions.”

Gesturing toward O’Leary, who is black, he said that no women’s group or black group had included her name as a recommended Cabinet choice. O’Leary would be the third black appointment Clinton has made.

“They are playing quota games and math games,” Clinton said at the news conference, noting that he had interviewed only women for EPA administrator and for the head of his economic advisers.

Today, the Houston Chronicle (my hometown paper), urges Barack Obama to focus on both merit and diversity in making his appointments:

President-elect Barack Obama enjoys two strengths as he faces the formidable task of choosing a Cabinet. First is the breadth and diversity of his support: blue-collar Anglos, Latinos, Jews, African-Americans, white youth and an important share of independents and Republicans. Second is his world view: Democratic, to be sure, but autonomous enough to tap the best minds for ideas.

His Cabinet selections should reflect these strengths, drawing from the ethnic and ideological coalition that spurred his victory, while rejecting any tokenism. Hiring a Republican or other minority, only to ignore them, would undermine Obama’s credibility as a president who seizes the best ideas whatever their source.

Here’s another suggestion: focus entirely on merit. This is a nation of 300 million people. Sure qualified supporters (who come from diverse backgrounds) ought to be considered for undersecretary and deputy positions, but in case it escaped notice, Barack Obama will be the nation’s first black president.  Of all the pressures he feels (and should rightly feel) in assembling his government, creating a “diverse” cabinet should be among the least important.

Discrimination still exists, but whoever serves in the Obama Administration will answer to a black man. We’ve got all the symbolism we need. Obama’s cabinet could look like Bushwood Country Club’s membership committee, the Hollywood Producers Guild, a casting call for Moesha or Stanford University’s math club and it just wouldn’t matter. After eight years of near total failure in government, competence is what counts — now more than ever.  Bean counters and boot-licking yes men (and women) ought to butt out.

But come on — settle on a message already. On the one hand, Islamist freaks are euphoric that Barack Obama (their most successful sleeper agent), won the election and will no doubt soon begin imposing  Sharia law on the US.  On the other, rational Republicans were right all along: Obama is in for a rude awakening from the Islamic World, which hates all Americans, even naive liberals like him.

Republican disconnect number one takes place at 11:03 am Wednesday on LGF, where Islamist freaks were jumping for joy at Obama’s win:

Apparently at this polling place in 2004, there were 100 voters total for the whole day. We just passed 110 [at 10:00 am EST].

Since, as James Carville says, Pennsylvania is Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Alabama in between, Obama needs margins as large as possible in urban areas to overcome McCain’s rural advantage. This is a good start.

Update:

My source says that the most voters her location has ever had is 340. At 10:15 this morning, the location passed 130.