Source: The Raw Story
Event: CNN on Dec. 27, 2009
Url: http://rawstory.com/2009/12/gop-strategist-matalin-bush-inherited-911-attacks-clinton/

No amount of spit and polish can clean the tarnish of the 9/11 attacks from the Bush legacy, but that didn't stop GOP strategist Mary Matalin from trying.

During a Sunday appearance on CNN, Matalin attempted to prop up an analogy between the first year of George W. Bush's presidency and that of President Barack Obama's. Raising the specter of rising unemployment, anchor John King wondered whether Republicans have the right to attack Democrats over the economy.

Matalin's response -- given sitting across a table from her husband, Democratic strategist James Carville -- was a little more than blindly partisan.

"I was there," she said. "We inherited a recession from President Clinton and we inherited the most tragic attack on our own soil in our nation's history. And President Bush dealt with it. And within a year of his presidency at this comparable time, unemployment was at 5 percent. And we were creating jobs."

The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 happened during the Bush presidency. While administration officials said repeatedly that nobody could have predicted such a devastating attack, an August 6, 2001, briefing delivered to President Bush -- titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." -- later surfaced.

"The memo, sent to FBI headquarters by a Phoenix FBI agent, warned that bin Laden could have been using U.S. flight schools to train terrorists and suggested a nationwide canvass for Middle Eastern aviation students," The Washington Post reported.

Yet, even with clear warning, the Bush administration did not take steps to prevent the attack. Indeed, the FBI even thwarted efforts of a key informant close to alleged 9/11 plotter Mohammed Atta. The man, a Lebanon-native who pretended to be an Islamic extremist at the behest of American authorities, said that without the FBI's intervention he is "one million percent positive" the attacks could have been prevented.

"[Matalin is] even full of shit on unemployment," noted Atrois. "It was much better than it is now, of course, but 5.7%, rising eventually to 6.3%, isn't 5%."

This video was broadcast by CNN on Dec. 27, 2009, snipped by Think Progress.