George W Bush claiming that there is "systemic racism" among police

In talking about George Floyd's death, Bush said:

"This tragedy — in a long series of similar tragedies — raises a long overdue question: How do we end systemic racism in our society? The only way to see ourselves in a true light is to listen to the voices of so many who are hurting and grieving. Those who set out to silence those voices do not understand the meaning of America — or how it becomes a better place."

Obviously, while Floyd's deaths apparently shows extremely bad policing, I don't think that the evidence supports the claim of systemic racism by the police. Even in Floyd's case, t don't believe that there is yet evidence of racism on the part of the officer who apparently killed him, though I am interested in being corrected if I am wrong.

Rove: Bush's 2004 campaign was aimed at convincing non-Republicans to support Bush

I already knew that this was true, but it explains a lot about the problems that Bush created while he was president.

[Charlie] Cook asserts all those gains occurred because the Bush campaign focused on its base rather than throw “huge amounts of resources” at swing voters. . . .
Much of the Bush re-election’s massive volunteer effort was aimed at persuading non-Republicans to support Bush. So was its advertising, . . .

Comparing Bush's trips to Obama's after disasters

Bush was often painted unfairly as not caring about New Orleans after Katrina. By contrast, where is the media's outrage over Obama's level of caring as much.

President Obama's visit to the Gulf Coast on Friday is his third since the start of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster 46 days ago — an opportunity, press secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday, to get a full update on the response and "hear from nonelected individuals who are also suffering firsthand."

But when it comes to visiting the disaster-stricken area, Obama still lags behind his predecessor, former President George W. Bush, whose slow and stumbling reaction to Hurricane Katrina drew scathing reviews and left a permanent mark on his approval rating.

In the 46-day period in the fall of 2005, fter back-to-back hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Bush made eight trips to the distressed region, including a 35-minute flyover of the region on board Air Force One. That trip came two days after Katrina hit, and Bush returned to review response actions on the ground several days later. He proceeded to make trips to Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas to track the government's response.

Obama visited the Gulf Coast for the first time 12 days after the BP oil rig exploded. He surveyed the damage in Louisiana, and returned again last Friday and met with residents in the area.

Inaccuracies in Matt Latimer's new book — Speech-less

From the Politico:

Dana Perino, writing on the National Review's website said: "I knew Matt only a little bit. Now that an excerpt of his book is out, I'm reminded of what a veteran of three White Houses told me:

Beware of the quiet guy in the room. ... For example, he writes that President Bush didn't know who Sarah Palin was. That's rubbish — Bush had just met Palin the previous month in Alaska, and he mentioned that to me literally two seconds after McCain made his announcement. So much of what Latimer claims the president said don't ring true to me.

I was with the president for whole days at a time, through thick and thin, and I never heard him say things like that about others. ...I'm pretty sure that almost everyone who worked in the White House could not pick Matt out of a lineup, and I doubt that'll change much after this book. Speechless should have been called 'Shameless.'" . . .

John Fund at the WSJ's Political Diary more positively discusses part of the book:

A new book by Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer, "Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor," describes a conversation that Mr. Latimer had before the president addressed the annual CPAC conference, the largest gathering of conservative activists in the country. Mr. Bush objected to language in the draft of his remarks that attempted to identify the president with the conservative "movement."

"What is this movement you keep talking about in the speech?" the president asked Mr. Latimer. His aide explained that he meant the conservative movement, but quickly realized the president didn't understand. So Mr. Latimer launched into an explanation, only to meet silence from the president.

"Let me tell you something," the president finally said. "I whupped Gary Bauer's ass in 2000. So take out all this movement stuff. There is no movement."

Mr. Latimer said he found it surprising that the president seemed to equate the conservative movement, which has a proud pedigree stretching back to Robert Taft and Barry Goldwater, with the candidacy of Mr. Bauer, a second-tier figure who had little impact on the 2000 presidential primaries. Mr. Bush, sensing his speechwriter was perplexed, finally filled in the blanks. "Look, I know this probably sounds arrogant to say," Mr. Bush said, "but I redefined the Republican Party."

That may have been true, but how well did that work out for the Republican Party?

Where are the media comparisons over Obama trusting Medvedev

President Bush was strongly criticized for his statement about Putin:

"I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue," Bush said. "I was able to get a sense of his soul."

Where is the media discussion about Obama's statement:

"I trust President Medvedev to not only listen and to negotiate constructively, but also to follow -- follow through on the agreements that are contained here today."

Obama's statement goes at least as far as Bush's, though outside of Fox News I am not sure that a comparison has been made.