George W. Bush was awful on “Meet the Press” this morning. I kept watching him, thinking, is this really the president of the United States? He basically repeated himself for an hour. In trying to justify the war against Iraq and Saddam, he said “dangerous” 12 times, “danger” five times, and “madman” six times.
He’s incapable of complex, nuanced thought. We’ve known this for a while, but to actually see it happening was fascinating. He must be a lucky man to live in such a simple world with no gray areas. I felt both anger and sadness for the guy: anger because he’s throwing our country into the toilet, and sadness because, despite being 57 years old, he has no grip on reality. He’s a terrible off-the-cuff speaker, but that’s only partly due to his presentation; it’s his lack of content that makes him so rotten. He has nothing to say. Nothing. No thoughts, no logic. He talks in circles. Does he actually expect people to buy his empty, lame rhetoric?
Well, maybe they will. After the first Bush vs. Gore debate four years ago, I was happy because I felt Gore had won. Bush had blathered nonsense for an hour and a half while Gore had refuted almost all of that nonsense by making clear, logical, cogent points backed up by evidence. I was so psyched, and I thought Gore would start rising in the polls. But it turned out that all of America was focusing on Gore’s exhalations of breath. Ever since then, I’ve avoided trying to predict public opinion.
I won’t change my philosophy or my point of view. I believe I owe it to the American people to say what I’m going to do and do it, and to speak as clearly as I can, try to articulate as best I can why I make decisions I make, but I’m not going to change because of polls.
Or because of facts, apparently.
I don’t think George W. Bush is evil. I think that in his head, he really believes what he’s saying. He has a few overriding principles: Saddam bad. Taxes bad. America good. Part of me thinks he’ll stick to these beliefs even if it means losing the election. That’s honorable, in a way.
But he’ll also stick to these beliefs even if facts get in the way. And that’s scary.
Especially if he wins.
right on all counts, in my opinion. reading about his shortcomings is nothing compared to seeing them under bright lights for upwards of an hour. he’s not an evil man, but he’s extremely simple. a complex world requires something better than this, though.
The similarities between Saddam and Bush are what strike me. They both live(d) in this fantasy world where they could do no wrong. And Bush’s comments about Saddam pretty much describe himself, “He was a dangerous man in the dangerous part of the world….You can’t rely upon him making rational decisions when it comes to war and peace…”
I just wished he’d stop smirking the entire time, and especially as he repeated himself and “took a step back.” (as in took a step away from the question itself)