President Bush's final press conference was this afternoon. He finally acknowledged some of the things he has since had second thoughts about including social security reform, the war in Iraq, and his infamous *Mission Accomplished* banner debacle on the aircraft carrier. He remained defiant about the response to Katrina claiming that the federal response was satisfactory, as 30,000 people were rescued from the floods off of their roofs. Responding to social security reform, President Bush admitted he would have like to have pursued immigration reform instead. He does not think that the United States has lost any respect in terms of our moral standing around the world.
For what it's worth, being a president is no fun. For the past several years I've been no fan of George W. Bush. The alternatives would have been either Al Gore, who quite possibly might have been re-elected in 2004, and John Kerry, both of which certainly would not have made the same mistakes, but then again, there's no telling what other situations we might have gotten ourselves into.
It has to be frustrating that we had a surplus of funds that were totally and completely sucked away to the point now where in the worst recession since the Great Depression. It's no one's fault that 9/11 happened and I will readily admit that the one time during the past eight years where I stood side by side with President Bush was when he addressed the nation from Ground Zero and promised to do something immediately to retaliate. That was an emotional moment in our nation's history and one that could simply not go unanswered swiftly and powerfully. However, the *next steps* of launching a second war in Iraq and all the baggage that seemed to come along with it felt a bit awkward, to say the least.
It isn't that a war with Iraq was out of the question, and there certainly was no love lost there for Saddam Hussein, but there was no evidence to support the theory that he, specifically, or Iraq, in general, was connected. Elder Dieter Uchtdorf's address at the General Priesthood meeting about how missing the mark, even by a few degrees, can be the difference between success and misery. I'll let him tell you the story of this fateful event that happened in 1979.
In 1979 a large passenger jet with 257 people on board left New Zealand for a sightseeing flight to Antarctica and back. Unknown to the pilots, however, someone had modified the flight coordinates by a mere two degrees. This error placed the aircraft 28 miles (45 km) to the east of where the pilots assumed they were. As they approached Antarctica, the pilots descended to a lower altitude to give the passengers a better look at the landscape. Although both were experienced pilots, neither had made this particular flight before, and they had no way of knowing that the incorrect coordinates had placed them directly in the path of Mount Erebus, an active volcano that rises from the frozen landscape to a height of more than 12,000 feet (3,700 m).
As the pilots flew onward, the white of the snow and ice covering the volcano blended with the white of the clouds above, making it appear as though they were flying over flat ground. By the time the instruments sounded the warning that the ground was rising fast toward them, it was too late. The airplane crashed into the side of the volcano, killing everyone on board.
It was a terrible tragedy brought on by a minor error—a matter of only a few degrees.
I would say that this outgoing administration has been off by more than a "few degrees." I'd say they've been off their rocker at times. I'm grateful our nation can take a step forward for a change and am eagerly looking forward to the positive changes that President Obama is going to bring the red, white, and blue! God bless America!
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