"Does the Shoe Finally Fit?" (Mark Thoma, Economist's View)

[swag]

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2006/05/does_the_shoe_f.html

Suppose you take a column written in 1998 about President Clinton and change 'Clinton' to 'Bush' and 'North Korea' to 'Iran':

Liar's Poker, by Mona Charen: As the nation attempts to assimilate the news that its president is a ... liar ..., it is becoming clear that many Americans have a confused notion of what it is presidents do. To judge by opinion polls, most Americans think the president presides over the national economy and determines recessions or booms. ... In truth, while presidents are not completely irrelevant to the state of the economy, they are largely so. ... Nevertheless, President Bush has been the strength of the economy ... Call it the "being there" award. ...

This week brings news ... that not only confirms the execrable policies this administration has pursued around the globe but also point up the demoralizing effects of being led by a man whose word cannot be trusted.

When the president ordered the bombing of terrorist sites ..., most Americans believed that his motives were honorable... Now, reports are surfacing that the administration may have relied on incomplete intelligence ... with this president, can our minds be completely at rest about his motives or his reassurances? It becomes clear, when considering the president's anti-terrorism policy, that the president's personal behavior and reputation for honesty matter a great deal. ... This is not lying about sex; it is lying about the security of our country.

And finally, the folly of the president's ... handling of Iran is now on display. Iran is one of the world's most sinister regimes... Iran's nuclear weapons program alarming... President Bush's response: Stand up to the Iranians and force them to abandon their nuclear weapons program? No. President Bush ... a mere promise to refrain from developing nuclear weapons...

A president cannot conduct a firm foreign policy ... unless the American people trust his word. That is why this president is not just an embarrassment; he is a danger.