Bush was asked at his final press conference if he had made any mistakes and if so, what was the biggest. While Bush did not repeat the “I can’t think of any” boner, one could say that he did much worse. One part of his answer:

I’ve thought long and hard about Katrina — you know, could I have done something differently, like land Air Force One either in New Orleans or Baton Rouge. The problem with that and — is that law enforcement would have been pulled away from the mission.

Wow. You really have to stand back and look at that statement carefully to truly understand the breathtaking lack of humanity involved in what he said.

He apparently was told by somebody that he made a mistake somewhere in handling Katrina, but he just can’t seem to grasp–even now, after thinking long and hard–what he did wrong. I mean, really–land Air Force One in New Orleans?? How stupid is that? It is as if the man seriously believes that the only problem with his handling of Katrina was the bad PR. Not that he had hired an incompetent crony to run FEMA. Not that he could have been better prepared based upon the warnings, which showed impending disaster four days in advance. Not that he could have heeded those warnings and put the National Guard on alert, having them move into position so that they could have been on the scene almost instantly after disaster struck. Not that he could have reacted faster. Not that he should have ended his vacation earlier and sped back with the same sense of urgency to act that he did when the Terri Schiavo legislation needed to be signed. Not that he ate cake and strummed his guitar the day after the hurricane hit and hundreds of Americans died. Not that he could have sent in the National Guard after he finally got there instead of sitting on his ass for five days, five days doing nothing, without giving the National Guard the go-ahead, while the city and many of its inhabitants drowned.

No, he was more worried about how his PR actions affected his legacy. Land Air Force One either in New Orleans or Baton Rouge. That would have fixed things.

But note his lament after this nugget of hindsight, that landing Air Force One (had it even been possible) would have taken away from rescue efforts. As if his decision not to land in New Orleans was a stroke of considered genius. As if he had not, in fact, made exactly that error, as if he had not traveled to the region while people were still dying, while people were still in need of rescue. Witness the CNN screen grab at right, note the pretty, shiny Coast Guard helicopters just sitting there unused so they could act as his PR backdrop instead of being out in the field saving people’s lives. Note the shine on the helicopters–showing that time had been taken to make them look good, time which should have been spent pulling people out of the water or bringing in badly needed food and medicine. Bush acts as if he had not killed many Americans with his photo ops, had not slowed down rescue efforts.

No. Instead, after thinking long and hard, he feels that his greatest error, the biggest mistake of his administration is that he didn’t generate enough meaningless publicity to make people believe that he really cared.

What his answer also shows is that Bush is today far more cognizant of what cost him in the polls than he is of what really were errors of serious magnitude. But, hey, the man’s got to think about his legacy, right? Screw the citizens of the United States of America–let’s keep our eyes on what’s important here.