DiIorio - W post

The first scene that represents Bush's presidency well is the scene about half way through the movie where he is up in the middle of the night the night after his father won the election for president. As he is talking to Laura about it he tells her that "Rove hit me with a two-by-four of truth tonight...that I'll never get out of papi's shadow, they'll all keep saying, 'whats the boy ever done?'" What Carl really said to him was, "You need to go out in the world and do something. I don't know how else to say it, but you haven't done jack-shit yet." W's interpretation of Carl's advice is telling of his motivation for becoming president. All Carl was saying was that he needs some experience and accomplish some goals to put on his record. But W of course interprets it as Carl telling him that he hasn't done anything because his father was always there to provide for him and clean up his mess.

Another scene that describes W's presidency is towards the end of the movie when he is in the meeting with all his advisors talking about the situation in Iraq. He is angry because they've been in the country for too long, things are getting out of hand, and they still haven't found the "weapons of mass destruction." He demands to know, "Who's job is it to find these damn weapons? Who is in charge?!" It is then that he finds out that he and his team aren't actually the ones in charge. Powell explains to him that their jurisdiction over finding the weapons was stripped from them and given to the Feds. "Why wasn't I told?" He asks. This can be an evaluation of W's presidency because for the most part, he wasn't the one "in charge." For much of his term, he was a pawn or a puppet for the members of his cabinet or party to get what they wanted through him. For example, it is widely known that Dick Cheney took advantage of Bush to accomplish his goals.