Editorial in Salon, mostly rehashes stuff other people have said elsewhere, but this bit caught my attention:
What is needed instead is a reappraisal of U.S. policy and a good-faith move to share the leadership role with countries like France, Germany, China, Russia and Japan. If the president, like his predecessors Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, refuses to cut his losses and admit the error of an unwise military adventure, he will be judged and rejected as they were for the waste of American resources and the lives of our young people.
Ok, so here's the deal-- I don't think Bush actually cares how he'll be judged by history. He seems to be perfectly happy to just do his time in office, make his buddies happy along the way, and then collect a pension when he's done. If you think back to when Clinton was in office, it seems like we were always hearing stories about how concerned Bill was about his legacy. You never hear that about the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
From what I gather, this extends from Dubya's primary flaw, which is laziness. A lot of people think he's dumb, but I would disagree with that. Granted, he doesn't seem to have a firm grasp on English, but his dad has that same problem and no one ever accuses Bush Sr. of being dim. Some other folks might point to Dubya's performance in school as evidence of low brain wattage, but here again I would disagree. The way I see it, if Bush were really that dumb he would have had to have worked his tail off to get the middling grades he received, but by all accounts he was hardly industrious in his studies. So...I have to conclude that rather than being dumb, the guy's just lazy & did the minimal amount to get by. He didn't care if he succeeded & just went through the motions until the next gig came along.
Why does this matter? Well, because he's gotten us into a real fix here between Iraq, the economy, etc. In order to fix these problems he's going to have to really apply himself to figure out what's going on and determine the best path to fix it. Unfortunately, this requires someone who 1) cares, and 2) isn't afraid of tough mental challenges. I don't think Dubya fits either of those criteria.
Posted by Jason at September 10, 2003 10:39 AM