From the pages of the DC insider's gossip sheet The Nelson Report – the publication of record for leaking information anonymously – regarding a group of old Texas allies who visited the President to talk some sense into him regarding the Paul Wolfowitz World Bank fiasco:
[S]ome big money players up from Texas recently paid a visit to their friend in the White House. The story goes that they got out exactly one question, and the rest of the meeting consisted of The President in an extended whine, a rant, actually, about no one understands him, the critics are all messed up, if only people would see what he's doing things would be OK…etc., etc. This is called a "bunker mentality" and it's not attractive when a friend does it. When the friend is the President of the United States, it can be downright dangerous. Apparently the Texas friends were suitably appalled, hence the story now in circulation.
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Uh oh. So goes the transition from Dauphin Surrounded by Sycophants Who Isolate Him from Reality to full-blown self-pitying persecution complex. This scenario is clearly waving a number of different "Oh, shit" red flags:
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In his mind, the only logical solution to any of this is to spend the last 18 months of his term trying to prove his "enemies" wrong with "bold" and decisive actions. Expect military action in Iran by the end of the year, with a lot of psychotic Damn The Torpedoes Because History Will Judge My Actions Well talk during the ensuing uproar.
As the Nelson Report quote says, these signs of emotional and psychological cracking are disturbing when they happen to a friend or relative. In the leader of the free world the same signs aren't disturbing, they're terrifying.
One need do little more than look at a video clip of the President lately (he looks like he has aged 75 years, his voice is on the verge of tantrum/whining/tears, and his body language is ever more pleading and pathetic) to see that he not in fact totally divorced from reality. He realizes what is happening to him (6 years after the fact) and he is starting to crack. Most animals are dangerous when cornered and not offered an avenue of escape. Since his stubbornness and lack of brainpower preclude his only escape routes in this situation, the animal is about to become very dangerous. Liable, in fact, to lash out unpredictably and at random. The unfortunate reality is that this cornered animal happens to be the largest, most powerful carnivore on the planet.
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Uh oh.
Any day now you can expect the President's current visage (the bumbling Deer In Headlights look) to disappear and be replaced with the cold, thousand-yard stare of a cult leader squirting the kool-aid into his follower's mouths as the ATF agents storm the building. He's convinced that he is right and accepts that others are incapable of understanding that fact, so there's no logical course of action except to proceed to his apocalyptic PNAC-authored Endgame scenario. Sort of like Seung-Hui Cho, only, you know, he's the fucking president.
Ray says:
I think that's the first Cho/Bush comparison that I've seen – and hopefully the last. We already know how Bush rolls outside of the country, but what happens when he decides to shoot up the campus? Are there any rules about how and when a president can declare martial law? Seriously, I think we should be worried.
Ed says:
I wasn't comparing them as people. I'm comparing the negative consequences (which are unique to every individual and situation) that follow when people become convinced that they are right, everyone else is wrong, and the best solution is to become a martyr for one's misunderstood "cause".
J. Dryden says:
The phrase that terrifies me most in all this is "Bunker Mentality." Because we all know whose psyche *that* refers to. "Hitler was *elected*" jokes aside, I've no wish to compare the two–Godwin's law is about as reliable as gravity–but the "Bunker Mentality" definitely precedes the 'scorched earth' strategy. We can only hope that those who, like Cheney, have basically used this administration as a means of setting up a very comfortable retirement, can play the role of Speer and just steer everyone around Bush away from taking him too seriously.
There's comfort, perhaps, in the fact that, unlike Nixon, who came from nothing and had to *earn*–as often by sheer brains and force of will than by McCarthyism and Hooverism–all that came to him, giving him an ability to withstand test and trial. (He faced, among other things, a consistently hostile press corps, while Bush has essentially been given a reach-around ever since 9/11–only in past few months has the press realized that, since there's now more popularity to be gained in bashing him, have they come around to actually doing their f***ing jobs.) Bush has never earned a thing, and is, for all his bluster, a veritable house of cards when it comes to the demands of hard work and patience. (Witness the amount of vacation time he spends; witness the degree to which he demands that others tell him what he wants to hear, so as to avoid having to deal with the work involved in problem-solving.) So there's always the possibility that he'll just quit–stop doing any work at all and just 'check out'–kind of like Reagan did his last couple years in office (which actually boosted his popularity quite a bit.)
But if he truly believes in the God-Is-My-Copilot delusion, then yes, we're f***ed.
Nate says:
How is Buchanan worse than Warren G. Harding?
Jackieboy says:
He is a bungling, hypocritical blowhard. Since day 1.
Re:legacy of history. I thought I heard that, in Woodward's first book about Bush- the one that is supposed to be sycophantic-he responded to a question about the judgement of history: "There won't be any judgement of history, because we are in the End Times."
Is that actually true or did I read it wrong? If it is true, why isn't someone demanding that he explain himself at press conferences?
Hope he doesn't react to Time magazine's ridiculous snub. He may want to prove he has more influence than Angelina Jolie.
Ed says:
Buchanan essentially went into hiding for the last 6 months of his presidency so that no one could find him and he wouldn't have to address the impending secession of the Confederacy. By virtue of his raw cowardice and unvarnished ducking of his responsibilities, I think he is head and shoulders above a corrupt non-entity like Harding.
W will slide in behind Buchanan and ahead of Warren G only because Buchanan's inaction killed a lot more people.
Ron says:
"W will slide in behind Buchanan and ahead of Warren G only becasue Buchanan's inaction killed a lot more people."
It's still early.