I was looking up some information, and came across this old "Newshour" transcript of Jim Lehrer interviewing Bunnypants, the Candidate. It's very, very instructive. (bolded italicized material is my emphasis)

Isolating our enemies

JIM LEHRER: On a more general issue, Governor, the case in both Iraq and Kosovo or Yugoslavia, the sins that we moved against militarily and which you supported -- you say you support - I assume you support what your father did in the Gulf War. I didn't ask you about that.

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: I did.

JIM LEHRER: Right. And then what the Clinton administration did as a follow-up against Iraq.

George W. Bush: No, I don't support what the Clinton administration did as a follow-up. What the Clinton administration did as a follow-up is they -- is they allowed the inspection regime to wither. I think we need to have inspectors back into Iraq, and I think we need to make it clear to Saddam Hussein we want them back into -- we need to make it clear to our allies we expect the inspectors back in to make sure he's not developing weapons of mass destruction.

JIM LEHRER: OK. Well, then my question was a more general question -- that we had both Iraq with Saddam Hussein and Yugoslavia with Milosevic; they're the ones who committed the sins that caused us to move militarily, and they're not only alive and well -- many innocent people died -- they're not only alive and well, they're still in charge. What -- is there a realistic way to deal with that kind of thing when you have an evil person in charge and causing these things to happen?

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, I think the most realistic ways to keep them isolated in the world of public opinion and to work with our alliance is to keep them isolated. I'm just as frustrated as many Americans are that Saddam Hussein still lives. I think we ought to keep the pressure on him. I will tell you this: If we catch him developing weapons of mass destruction in any way, shape or form, I'll deal with that in a way that he won't like.

Jim Lehrer: Like what, bomb him?

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, it could be one option. He just needs to know that he'll be dealt with in a firm way.

JIM LEHRER: But you don't think that there's any way in our democratic society that we can move against individual leaders?

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: Do you mean to go assassinate him?

JIM LEHRER: Well, any way.

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: Actually, it's against the law, as I understand, for an American president to order the assassination of any world leader. I am -- I think that's right -- if I'm not mistaken, Jim, and yeah, I mean, obviously we need to keep the pressure on these men. At some point in time the forces of good will take -- will handle Saddam Hussein; I'm confident of that. But we've just got to keep the pressure on him.

JIM LEHRER: And just live with the frustration that that's what happens in our kind of society.

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, that may be true, but keep the frustration down to a minimum by doing what we say we're going to do and when we do something make sure he understands loud and clear we mean it.

Pretty clearly the messianic "forces of good" thing was at play with Preznit Dimestore Jesus, it's just amazing that so many normally sharp people like Jim Lehrer chose to utterly ignore it to either keep his access via Rove and Bartlett or was just plain oblivious.