At Last, George W. Bush Gets it Right

Referring to himself in his most recent press conference, President Bush said: “I’m a campaigner. That’s what I do.”

That is exactly right. George W. Bush is not a thinker. He’s not a reader of books. He dismisses print and broadcast media. He has no interest in history or understanding why world events unfold the way they do.

There is no danger that he will learn anything from reading reports, even if produced by his own administration, because he simply can’t be bothered with information (I’m referring explicitly to the 9-11 Commission’s report, but take your pick).

George W. Bush has made ignorance a point of pride throughout his career. He celebrates his snooze through the institutions of higher learning that his family’s pull got him through. Many of us would have valued the Ivy League golden opportunity enough to actually work hard at it.

And he left his National Guard unit when he felt like it, which happened to be just before a mandatory drug test.

John Kerry’s remark to the university students suggesting that they study hard or they’ll find themselves stuck in Iraq is actually based in recent American history. It was an actual fact during the Viet Nam war era that a college deferment could keep you out of the jungle. Just ask Dick Cheney.

There is no denying the appeal of a practiced sneer to a group of people who are mean-spirited at heart, and that describes the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld base at the core. It works in just about any policy area.

Bush and Cheney both have the gift in the sneer department. Rumsfeld is just pure, cold bastard in spades. I cannot recall a Cabinet member who has displayed greater contempt for the public he supposedly is paid to serve than this man.

As Election Day draws near, the President and Vice President are full-time partisan campaigners, which is decidedly not the job they were elected to do.

As a President, as a world leader, as a Commander-in-Chief, George W. Bush is a miserable failure and we as a nation are all the poorer for that.

But he is a hellacious campaigner. He and Cheney are flying all over, working that sneer magic.

Send them a message on Election Day with your vote.