Sam Hill
2008-03-17 13:02:03 UTC
Bush's Carefree Crash-and-Burn Presidency
By Maureen Dowd, The New York Times. Posted March 17, 2008.
The more terrified Americans get of Bush's policy disasters, the more
bizarrely cheery is his attitude.
Everyone here is flummoxed about why the president is in such a fine mood.
The dollar's crumpling, the recession's thundering, the Dow's bungee-jumping
and the world's disapproving, yet George Bush has turned into Gene Kelly,
tap dancing and singing in a one-man review called "The Most Happy Fella."
"I'm coming to you as an optimistic fellow," he told the Economic Club of
New York on Friday. His manner -- chortling and joshing -- was in odd
juxtaposition to the Fed's bailing out the imploding Bear Stearns and his
own acknowledgment that "our economy obviously is going through a tough
time," that gas prices are spiking, and that folks "are concerned about
making their bills."
He began by laughingly calling the latest news on the economic meltdown "a
interesting moment" and ended by saying that "our energy policy has not been
very wise" and that there was "no quick fix" on gasp-inducing gas prices.
"You know, I guess the best way to describe government policy is like a
person trying to drive a car in a rough patch," he said. "If you ever get
stuck in a situation like that, you know full well it's important not to
overcorrect, because when you overcorrect you end up in the ditch."
Dude, you're already in the ditch.
Boy George crashed the family station wagon into the globe and now the
global economy. Yet the more terrified Americans get, the more bizarrely
carefree he seems. The former oilman reacted with cocky ignorance a couple
of weeks ago when a reporter informed him that gas was barreling toward $4 a
gallon.
In on-the-record sessions with reporters -- and more candid off-the-record
ones -- he has seemed goofily happy in recent weeks, prickly no more but
strangely liberated and ebullient.
Even though he ordinarily hates being kept waiting, he made light of it
while cooling his heels for John McCain, and did a soft shoe for the White
House press. Wearing a cowboy hat, he warbled a comic Western ditty at the
Gridiron Dinner a week ago -- alluding to Scooter Libby's conviction, Saudis
getting richer from our oil-guzzling, Brownie's dismal Katrina performance,
and Dick Cheney's winsome habit of withholding documents.
At a dinner on Wednesday, the man who is persona non grata on the campaign
trail (except for closed fund-raisers) told morose Republican members of
Congress that he was totally confident that "we can retake the House" and
"hold the White House."
"I think 2008 is going to be a fabulous year for the Republican Party!" he
said, sounding like Rachael Ray sprinkling paprika on goulash. That must
have been news to House Republicans, who have no money, just lost the seat
held by their former speaker, and are hemorrhaging incumbents as they head
into a campaign marked by an incipient recession and an unpopular war.
If only they could see things as the president does. Bush, who used his
family connections to avoid Vietnam, told troops serving in Afghanistan on
Thursday that he is "a little envious" of their adventure there, saying it
was "in some ways romantic."
Afghanistan is still roiling, as is Iraq, but W. is serene. "Removing Saddam
Hussein was the right decision early in my presidency, it is the right
decision now, and it will be the right decision ever," he said, echoing that
great American philosopher Dan Quayle, who once told Samoans, "Happy campers
you are, happy campers you have been and, as far as I am concerned, happy
campers you will always be."
W. bragged to Republicans about his "considered judgment" in sending more
troops to Iraq and again presented himself as an untroubled instrument of
divine will. "I believe there's an Almighty," he said, "and I believe a gift
of that Almighty to every man, woman and child is freedom."
Although the president belittled the Democrats for their policy of
"retreat," his surge has been a temporary and expensive place-holder for
what Americans want: a policy to get us out of Iraq.
"Has it allowed us to reduce troop levels to below where they were when it
started?" Michael Kinsley wrote recently. "The answer is no." Gen. David
Petraeus told The Washington Post last week that no one in the U.S. and
Iraqi governments "feels that there has been sufficient progress by any
means in the area of national reconciliation."
Maybe the president is just putting on a good face to keep up American
morale, the way Herbert Hoover did after the crash of '29, when he continued
to dress in a tuxedo for dinner.
Or maybe the old Andover cheerleader really believes his own cheers, and
that prosperity will turn up any time now, just like the W.M.D. in Iraq.
Or perhaps it's a Freudian trip. Now that he's mucked up the world and the
country, he can finally stop rebelling against his dad and relax in the
certainty that the Bush name will forever be associated with crash-and-burn
presidencies.
Whatever the explanation, it's plumb loco.
By Maureen Dowd, The New York Times. Posted March 17, 2008.
The more terrified Americans get of Bush's policy disasters, the more
bizarrely cheery is his attitude.
Everyone here is flummoxed about why the president is in such a fine mood.
The dollar's crumpling, the recession's thundering, the Dow's bungee-jumping
and the world's disapproving, yet George Bush has turned into Gene Kelly,
tap dancing and singing in a one-man review called "The Most Happy Fella."
"I'm coming to you as an optimistic fellow," he told the Economic Club of
New York on Friday. His manner -- chortling and joshing -- was in odd
juxtaposition to the Fed's bailing out the imploding Bear Stearns and his
own acknowledgment that "our economy obviously is going through a tough
time," that gas prices are spiking, and that folks "are concerned about
making their bills."
He began by laughingly calling the latest news on the economic meltdown "a
interesting moment" and ended by saying that "our energy policy has not been
very wise" and that there was "no quick fix" on gasp-inducing gas prices.
"You know, I guess the best way to describe government policy is like a
person trying to drive a car in a rough patch," he said. "If you ever get
stuck in a situation like that, you know full well it's important not to
overcorrect, because when you overcorrect you end up in the ditch."
Dude, you're already in the ditch.
Boy George crashed the family station wagon into the globe and now the
global economy. Yet the more terrified Americans get, the more bizarrely
carefree he seems. The former oilman reacted with cocky ignorance a couple
of weeks ago when a reporter informed him that gas was barreling toward $4 a
gallon.
In on-the-record sessions with reporters -- and more candid off-the-record
ones -- he has seemed goofily happy in recent weeks, prickly no more but
strangely liberated and ebullient.
Even though he ordinarily hates being kept waiting, he made light of it
while cooling his heels for John McCain, and did a soft shoe for the White
House press. Wearing a cowboy hat, he warbled a comic Western ditty at the
Gridiron Dinner a week ago -- alluding to Scooter Libby's conviction, Saudis
getting richer from our oil-guzzling, Brownie's dismal Katrina performance,
and Dick Cheney's winsome habit of withholding documents.
At a dinner on Wednesday, the man who is persona non grata on the campaign
trail (except for closed fund-raisers) told morose Republican members of
Congress that he was totally confident that "we can retake the House" and
"hold the White House."
"I think 2008 is going to be a fabulous year for the Republican Party!" he
said, sounding like Rachael Ray sprinkling paprika on goulash. That must
have been news to House Republicans, who have no money, just lost the seat
held by their former speaker, and are hemorrhaging incumbents as they head
into a campaign marked by an incipient recession and an unpopular war.
If only they could see things as the president does. Bush, who used his
family connections to avoid Vietnam, told troops serving in Afghanistan on
Thursday that he is "a little envious" of their adventure there, saying it
was "in some ways romantic."
Afghanistan is still roiling, as is Iraq, but W. is serene. "Removing Saddam
Hussein was the right decision early in my presidency, it is the right
decision now, and it will be the right decision ever," he said, echoing that
great American philosopher Dan Quayle, who once told Samoans, "Happy campers
you are, happy campers you have been and, as far as I am concerned, happy
campers you will always be."
W. bragged to Republicans about his "considered judgment" in sending more
troops to Iraq and again presented himself as an untroubled instrument of
divine will. "I believe there's an Almighty," he said, "and I believe a gift
of that Almighty to every man, woman and child is freedom."
Although the president belittled the Democrats for their policy of
"retreat," his surge has been a temporary and expensive place-holder for
what Americans want: a policy to get us out of Iraq.
"Has it allowed us to reduce troop levels to below where they were when it
started?" Michael Kinsley wrote recently. "The answer is no." Gen. David
Petraeus told The Washington Post last week that no one in the U.S. and
Iraqi governments "feels that there has been sufficient progress by any
means in the area of national reconciliation."
Maybe the president is just putting on a good face to keep up American
morale, the way Herbert Hoover did after the crash of '29, when he continued
to dress in a tuxedo for dinner.
Or maybe the old Andover cheerleader really believes his own cheers, and
that prosperity will turn up any time now, just like the W.M.D. in Iraq.
Or perhaps it's a Freudian trip. Now that he's mucked up the world and the
country, he can finally stop rebelling against his dad and relax in the
certainty that the Bush name will forever be associated with crash-and-burn
presidencies.
Whatever the explanation, it's plumb loco.