More evidence of Bush being "disengaged"

[priller]

I got this from Brad DeLong's blog, where he quotes a paragraph from the latest Atlantic Monthly (which doesn't appear to be on the net yet):

This is the place to note that in several months of interviews I never once heard someone say "We took this step because the President indicated..." or "The President wanted..." Instead I heard "Rumsfeld wanted," "Powell thought," "the Vice President pushed," "Bremer asked," and so on. One need only compare this with any discussion of foreign policy in Reagan's or Clinton's Administration--or Nixon's, or Kennedy's, or Johnson's... to sense how unusual is the absence of the President as prime mover. The other conspicuously absent figure was Condoleeza Rice.... It is possible that the President's confidants are so discreet that they have kept all his decisions and instructions secret. But that would run counter to the fundamental nature of bureaucratic Washington, where people cite a President's authority whenever they possibly can ("The President feels strongly about this, so...").

-----

I know people have been focusing on the O'Neill and Suskind revelations about war plans, but I think the real damage done to Bush is that it shows that he is not the "strong leader" his addled followers think he is. As much as we DU'ers here follow policy, most people voted for Bush because of what they perceive as "character" and "leadership" issues. But revelations like the Suskind book should make it clear to even the most blinkered Bush devotee that Bush is little more than an ignorant puppet, easily manipulated by Cheney, Rove, and the others who are really calling the shots. THIS will turn people off of Bush. I don't think many of them care about WMD and are probably glad for the US to flex its military muscles, but they will care when they realize that Bush is a simply a poser, a phoney, a puppet reciting lines, and not the strong leader they thought he was.

[lovedems]

1. If the man knew what he was doing, he would be capable of giving press

conferences. If you can't answer simple or complex issues regarding your own policy, you obviously don't know very much about that policy. It just confirms what the people at DU have thought all along. He is a puppet.

[Cat Atomic]

11. Very true. We see his advisors all the time, but Bush is

usually on vacation. The truth is right there in the open for anyone who cares to look at it.

When that guy fired a gun at the White House, the truth was already clear. "Luckily", said the Secret Service, "the Vice President was in his office, and the President was in the gym".

Yep.

[displacedtexan]

2. Those who voted for * actually voted for themselves...

that old 'if he can do it, so can i' attitude: the same attitude that makes poor people (hoping to get rich tomorrow) support tax cuts for the rich today.
Also, they really voted for *'s self-proclaimed expert advisors (AKA 'the grownups').

[LeahMira]

9. Sad, enit?

If the man knew what he was doing, he would be capable of giving press conferences. If you can't answer simple or complex issues regarding your own policy, you obviously don't know very much about that policy. It just confirms what the people at DU have thought all along. He is a puppet.

I don't know about that. I think Bush has some significant disabilities. Obviously he cannot speak simple English without mauling the language. The fact that he reportedly doesn't read a lot but depends on oral reports indicates some dyslexia. Educators and psychologists are learning more about learning disabilities now than ever before... we used to just say that these folks "weren't trying hard enough." I do think that what we see is a combination of several mild to severe learning problems coupled with a generally low intellectual potential overall. It's probably not really quite as low as it seems, but compared to Clinton or Carter this man Bush is "limited."



Those who voted for * actually voted for themselves...
that old 'if he can do it, so can i' attitude: the same attitude that makes poor people (hoping to get rich tomorrow) support tax cuts for the rich today.

Why do Americans continue to believe this myth? They see one example... Colin Powell, for instance... and they all think that if he did it so can they. Sometimes that does happen, but no one ever looks at the millions of folks who did all the same kinds of "right things" and still didn't make it. I don't want to discourage people, but I do wish they'd be realistic about the possibilities.

[Military Brat]

3. Remember Card's sign on 9/11 to bush: "Don't say anything."

They don't trust him to say anything, they don't trust him to make decisions. They media train him to "act" like a president, but as soon as he speaks ad lib, you could run a Mack truck through the holes in bush's statements.

[CatWoman]

4. And then, there's this

[Guaranteed]

5. That's a great point.

I totally agree. I think seeing Bush as a puppet is just as damaging as seeing him as a liar- because he's being controlled by people that aren't trusted by the public.

[efhmc]

6. Sorry but I really have to laugh here. Anyone who paid attention at all

hadd all the info about baby bush from his holiday years spent destroying Texas. Every piece of info about his laziness and stupidity while in office was there for all interested parties to see. Too bad repukes and their herd of sheep, will never see the truth until it is too late.

[Speed8098]

8. If you remember the debates

Al Gore pointed out the statistics from Texas and * replied, it must be "fuzzy math", then the pundits reported how well the chimp looked.

That's when I knew we were in for trouble.

[KG]

7. just check the creative output from the chimp compared

to his contemporaries - no books, papers, articles, no nothing.

because his mind just doesn't function at that high of a level.

[kskiska]

10. Not even letters.

Just what will his "memoirs" look like? His past is off limits, he won't speak of his family. There are no "family photos" from the White House, just the stupid dogs.

[Paxdora]

16. just the stupid dogs...???

Waddaya mean, stupid dogs? They probably have more smarts than their moron owner!

[newyawker99]

18. Hi Paxdora!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Cat Atomic]

14. Just like Reagan.

When he left office, he just disappeared. I know he has Alzheimer's now, but what about earlier? Why didn't reporters even seek out an occasional opinion from the Gipper?

Because he was puppet- just like George W. Bush is now. Everyone knew it, but like today, it was just something you weren't supposed to say out loud.

[CityZen-X]

12. Can America Differentiate?

Between Bu$h*t & Shinola?

[chookie]

15. Doublespeak has many functions

For example, mixed messages. A phrase like "liberation" means one thing to sane people, and quite another to the insane (his base of support).

Deliberately confusing. People then conclude that they are not smart enough to comprehend matters. They are constantly kept off balance, in a effort to keep people from really understanding what this guy is all about.

It is a PR presidency. Sell the sizzle, and not the steak. The techniques they use work on people who do not use their brains, or otherwise choose not to think about things.

I'm not sure which is preferable -- people who vote for him or support him because they fall for the lies, or that they have made a deliberate choice of militant authoritarianism propped up by a cult of personality.

[CityZen-X]

17. Mushroom Nation

The only citizens of our country that can possibly vote for this traitorist regime are the members of his "Mushroom Nation"-Those who are kept in the dark, and thrive on Bu$h*t!
It makes me worry at times, because you know what happens if they are exposed to rays of light.

[chookie]

13. He is also inarticulate

The guy can't string thoughts together well enough even to compose a grammatical sentence.

The official spin has been that, "well, we all knew what he meant, right?"

Actually, no we don't. The press don't know -- and are not suffered to press him to be clearer. The public can't understand him.

Now, as Paul O'Neill has revealed -- his own Cabinet don't understand him. Apparently, even they are often unclear about what the heck he is trying to get across.

I guess he gets prickly when he gets caught in his utter incompetence, so no doubt some in his inner circle are afraid to press him. On the other hand, others, like Cheney and Rumsfeld, are so cynical that they really have no care about what the heck he thinks or says, because he is just a puppet anyway, and their primary job is making him think he's a Big Boy now. They manipulate him by playing up to his immense ego and pathological narcissism.

[cthrumatrix]

19. kick

[JHB]

20. Spot on

But revelations like the Suskind book should make it clear to even the most blinkered Bush devotee that Bush is little more than an ignorant puppet, easily manipulated by Cheney, Rove, and the others who are really calling the shots.

Righto! That was drawn into particular relief in the part of the 60 Minutes segment where they talk about a time when * actually questioned the second round of tax cuts and Cheney and Rove got on him with buzzphrases that appealed to his self-image: "Don't flip-flop", "Stay the course, stay the course".