Special Commentary by Keith Olbermann--just before the election!

We've got another powerful Special Commentary by Keith Olbermann here. This one is especially potent since Olbermann really asks both the American people and President Bush, "Checks and balances. Where did that go, Mr. Bush? And what price did we pay because we have let it go?"

Both Crooks and Liars and MSNBC have the transcript and video of Olbermann's Special Commentary.

YouTube has the video here:



There is one part of Olbermann's commentary that I would like to highlight here. Olbermann starts off talking about the latest death sentence against Saddam Hussein:

Saddam Hussein, found guilty in an Iraqi court.

Who can argue against that?

He is officially, what the world always knew he was: a war criminal.

Mr. Bush, was this imprimatur, worth the cost of 2,832 American lives, and thousands more American lives yet to be lost?

Is the conviction of Saddam Hussein the reason you went to war in Iraq?

Or did you go to war in Iraq because of the weapons of mass destruction that did not exist?

Or did you go to war in Iraq because of the connection between Iraq and al-Qaeda that did not exist?

Or did you go to war in Iraq to break the bonds of tyranny there, while installing the mechanisms of tyranny here?

Or did you go to war in Iraq because you felt the need to wreak vengeance against somebody, anybody?

Or did you go to war in Iraq to contain a rogue state which, months earlier, your own administration had declared had been fully contained by sanctions?

Or did you go to war in Iraq to keep gas prices down?

How startling it was, sir, to hear you introduce oil to your stump speeches over the weekend.

Not four years removed from the most dismissive, the most condescending, the most ridiculing denials of the very hint at, as Mr. Rumsfeld put it, this “nonsense.”

There you were, campaigning in Colorado, in Nebraska, in Florida, in Kansas -- suddenly turning this ‘unpatriotic idea’ into a platform plank.

"You can imagine a world in which these extremists and radicals got control of energy resources," you told us. "And then you can imagine them saying, 'We're going to pull a bunch of oil off the market to run your price of oil up unless you do the following.'"

Having frightened us, having bullied us, having lied to us, having ignored and rewritten the Constitution under our noses, having stayed the course, having denied you’ve stayed the course, having belittled us about "timelines" but instead extolled "benchmarks," you’ve now resorted, sir, to this?

We must stay in Iraq to save the $2 gallon of gas?

Mr. President, there is no other conclusion we can draw as we go to the polls tomorrow.

Sir, you have been making this up as you went along.

This country was founded to prevent anybody from making it up as they went along.

It is rather disturbing to know that we have an administration that has been making up everything as they've gone along. And it is especially depressing to watch this spin go one--time and time again--by this administration which has no honesty or respect for this nation's government and the Constitution. We've seen this type of excuses in Iraq--not just on the lack of Iraqi WMDs, but also with the Bush marketing spin on why the United States even went to war with Iraq. You remember some of the spin--Iraq had WMDs, Iraq was harboring al Qaida terrorists, Iraq was responsible for 9/11, Saddam Hussein is an evil dictator, Saddam Hussein is just like Adolf Hitler--killing his people, we need to protect the Iraqi oil from the al Qaida terrorists, the Iraqis will welcome the U.S. soldiers as liberators and throw flowers at their feet. I know that in my blog, I've stated so many times how these "excuses" by President Bush were nothing more than marketing spin--that the Bush White House is really a marketing and sales office to sell to the American people. But even I'll have to admit some surprise at just how much the Bush administration refuses to admit any errors, accept any responsibility, and continues to make excuses to their own mistakes. It is endless.

Olbermann ends his commentary by not blaming President Bush and the Republicans for the destruction of the delicate system of checks and balances within our government. Instead, Olbermann blames all of us--the American people--for allowing President Bush to "go to war in Iraq to oust Saddam or find non-existent weapons or avenge 9/11 or fight terrorists who only got there after we did or as cover to change the fabric of our Constitution or for lower prices at The Texaco or…?"

The American people have been letting President Bush make everything up as he went along. We've allowed this Bush administration to go unchecked and unbalanced.

Vote.