December 02, 2008 ABC News

The Preznit, out working on that Legacy Thing, was on ABC with Charles Gibson last night, and had this revealing exchange:

Gibson: You've always said there's no do-overs as president. If you had one -- Bush: The biggest regret of all the presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in Iraq. A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said, you know ... the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein. It wasn't just people in my administration, and um ... You know, that's not a do-over, but I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess. Gibson: If the intelligence had been right, would there have been an Iraq war? Bush: If he had had weapons of mass destruction, would there have been a war? Absolutely. Gibson: No, if you had known he didn't. Bush: Oh, I see what you're saying. Uh ... You know, that's an interesting question. That is a do-over I can't do. It's hard for me to speculate.

David N: As always with Bush, the Buck Stops Over There, Or There -- Anywhere But Here.

It obviously never crossed Bush's mind to consider the possibility that there weren't WMD in Iraq -- which, as we now know, was a lot of the reason the intelligence he received was getting so skewed. Indeed, it's obvious he'd probably have simply ignored that intelligence even if it had clearly warned there were no WMD.

Meanwhile, guys like Richard Clarke were warning him he shouldn't even go into Iraq if he was serious about combating terrorism.

Clearly, he wasn't. He was just intent on kicking Saddam's ass, regardless of the price paid.

And that's why, contra Karl Rove, he is forever doomed to be known as the Worst. President. Ever.

Adam Serwer at TAP and Greg Sargent at TPM have more on Bush's actual record regarding pre-invasion intelligence on Iraq.