where the buck stops

I didn't liveblog the last "debate," nor have I yet commented on it. I've been letting it steep and stew in my mind, mulling over the various gaffes and missteps, counting the ducked questions, the evasions, the distortions and fabrications.

I had only one "aha" moment upon reflection. It was this: Bush, right or wrong in his actions, has a skewed vision of leadership. Although he claims that good leaders show firm resolve, and send clear messages, he has missed another key aspect: leaders take responsibility, especially for mistakes. As a friend in the Marines once put it, "The complaints go up, not down." As Harry Truman put it, "The buck stops here."

You said that if Congress would vote to extend the ban on assault weapons, that you'd sign the legislation, but you did nothing to encourage the Congress to extend it. Why not?

BUSH: Actually, I made my intentions -- made my views clear. I did think we ought to extend the assault weapons ban, and was told the fact that the bill was never going to move, because Republicans and Democrats were against the assault weapon ban, people of both parties...

My biggest disappointment in Washington is how partisan the town is. I had a record of working with Republicans and Democrats as the governor of Texas, and I was hopeful I'd be able to do the same thing.

And we made good progress early on. The No Child Left Behind Act, incredibly enough, was good work between me and my administration and people like Senator Ted Kennedy.

And we worked together with Democrats to relieve the tax burden on the middle class and all who pay taxes in order to make sure this economy continues to grow.

But Washington is a tough town. And the way I view it is there's a lot of entrenched special interests there, people who are, you know, on one side of the issue or another and they spend enormous sums of money and they convince different senators to taut their way or different congressmen to talk about their issue, and they dig in.

I had these big dreams for Washington, and they were dashed on the rocks of partisan reality. Golly gee, I didn't know that Big Money ruled Washington--'cause out here in Texas, that sorta thing just doesn't happen. Uh-huh. When I succeed, it's me, with a little help from the conservative senator from Massachusetts. When I fail, it's other people, the "entrenched special interests." When I admit even one mistake, it's the people I appoint who don't do exactly what I want. When my war plan falls apart, it's because we succeeded too quickly. When I send troops into battle without sufficient body armor the first time, it's because of Kerry's symbolic protest vote the second time.

Jon Stewart for president.