Saturday, May 19, 2007

Just Who is George W. Bush?


It's often claimed by today's Republican leadership candidates that their unpopular president isn't really a conservative and not much of a Republican either. At the same time, however, polls of core Republican supporters show solid approval for Mr. Bush and his policies. A lot of his committed supporters present him as a good guy who just got bad advice and was let down by his key aides. These myths were shredded in today's New York Times.

The lead editorial refutes the notion that Bush's problems have resulted from bad advice from the likes of Alberto Gonzales, George Tenet or Donald Rumsfeld and the president's renowned loyalty to his aides. It contends that Bush's tenacity in supporting these types, despite their demonstration of chronic incompetence, bad judgment or malfeasance is really grounded in the fact that they've actually been doing precisely what he's told them to do. In other words, the incompetence, bad judgment and malfeasance originates with and lies squarely at the feet of George Walker Bush himself.

One by one these aides and supposed advisors have turned into sycophantic minions delivering up exactly what their boss ordered.

Columnist Paul Krugman takes this argument one step further and claims that while Bush may have, "...degraded our government and undermined the rule of law; ...led us into strategic disaster and moral squalor," he's not been untrue to his party's values and wishes.

Krugman revisited the last Republican leadership debate at which every candidate save for John McCain endorsed the use of torture and mirrored Bush's state of denial about the utter failure in Iraq.

The columnist argues that Bush's bubble, his "no-reality zone" extends to the Republican party's core supporters who, "...believe that patriotic torturers are keeping us safe, that there’s a vast Islamic axis of evil, that victory in Iraq is just around the corner, that Bush appointees are doing a heckuva job — and that news reports contradicting these beliefs reflect liberal media bias."

George W. Bush is indeed the face of today's movement conservative, southern Republican party.

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