David Ingatius needs to work on his brevity. This is a lot of words to call Bush a phony that is in denial about the carnage he has caused.
Bush has lacked the tragic sensibility found in many of our great presidents. He works so hard at his show of easy informality that you rarely sense the inner man and the anguish that must be there. Watching him, you know he’s wound tight even as he tries to act loose. The locker-room nicknames and the exaggerated Texas mannerisms are part of the enforced informality. The longer he stays in Washington, the more pronounced his Texas manner of droppin’ his g’s. It’s a kind of camouflage, but it’s wearing thin. This is not a president at ease.
This is not a nation at ease. Bush is a frat-boy cheerleader, duty skirting, crook. He’s never won a fight, and he’s never gone to work and done a good job. He is the antithesis of everything he purports to represent. He’s not a tough guy, and no one can rely on him. Everything he touches turns to shit.
Ignatius thinks Bush is losing the war because he can’t communicate effectively. But that isn’t it. Bush has lost at everything he has ever attempted. And bemoaning Bush’s ineffective rhetoric is irresponsible. People should have looked at his record and realized that he would never be anything other than an embarassing failure as a President. Unfortunately, he has been much worse than an embarrassing failure. Careful observers could have predicted that too.
If we want to avoid the worst consequences of this administrations crimes and incompetence, Bush and Cheney should be removed from office. Everyone knows it. It’s just that everyone is standing around waiting for someone else to make the first move.
Anguish? Maybe we don’t sense any anguish because there is no anguish. Talk about projecting …
You’re right. Bush doesn’t have either the cognitive dexterity or the emotional depth to experience anguish. He’s too much the petulant, angry imbecile; his self-absorption too complete to allow him the capacity for the full and normal range of human emotion.
He’s not the only one uneasy!
Cliche to say – there has to be a Democratic majority in either the Senate or House for impeachment to have a chance.
That said, HELL yeah. Politicians who say that impeachment is purely a “political” move have it all wrong – backwards – and are seriously underestimating or deliberately downplaying the amount of damage this man and his administration have done to our Constitution and our democracy. They need to be legally punished – to show that this is still a country ruled by law, and that violating the Constitution he swore to uphold has some consequences.
The only problem with that analysis is that this is no longer a country ruled by law, and there are no longer consequences to violating the Constitution. I’m guessing you’re not among the top 250 wealthiest members of the Party?
Aside from that you’re spot on.
Well…yeah…there’s that.
I honestly can’t tell if the current crisis is “fixable” in the short term, or not. I figure we’ll have a pretty good idea by 2008, if not 2006.
Then I start humming that Clash song – “Should I stay or should I go?”
What’s the difference between self-preservation and running away, you know?
he left it barely alive. The man has spent his whole life beating his silver spoon with a hammer and smiling gleefully at everybody while doing it just like a delightful toddler. It’s a good thing the Bush dynasty has plenty of spare spoons.
they threw out the chess board a long time ago.
you just think you see one, my reality-based friend.
but you are right anyway. and often.
Incompetent. Idiot. Liar.
The three most common words Americans are using to describe Bush as shown in the latest poll by The Pew Research Center:
Ingatius refuses to admit to his readers and himself what most Americans now know about Bush. Instead he writes a typical Washington Post puff piece about Bush that approaches the apologetic and a call for sympathy.
Your too kind!
Our nation peers into a mirror & sees a 10 foot sideshow pinhead.
Some of us like the reflection ’cause he’s tall.
Whose hand is it that holds the mirror? What is it they want?
Bush is a frat-boy cheerleader, duty skirting, crook.
Well said!
I believe you have accurately diagnosed the situation. You outlined not only Bush’s faults, but the faults of those too paralyzed to take action.
Political leaders, enabled by the citizenry, have taken up permanent residence in Disney Land. We can have a war with out sacrifice. We can cut taxes and still provide “enough” services. We can create a chasm between rich and poor and avoid class warfare. We can outsource jobs and retrain workers for ones that don’t exist.
The American voters have not held Congress accountable for anything. (Except, perhaps, for “protecting” marriage and punishing sexually active women.) It’s no wonder that Bush isn’t held accountable, the American people haven’t demanded it. It is hard to imagine what it will take to get our citizenry to become aware of what is going on, to care about it, and most of all to take action.
The important social changes in this country have come at great cost and with great involvement on the part of large numbers of people. Given that the atrocities of this administration have failed to do it, I don’t want to imagine what it is going to take to get the attention of most Americans.