Barnicle: Bush blessed with a fortunate life and a “thanks dad” existence

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

September 21, 2005 | 11: 30 a.m. ET

Real world Vs. Bush's world (Mike Barnicle)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5445086/

I am in aisle three of the supermarket, watching a woman choose between a box of store brand Frosted Flakes and the real deal sold by Kellogg. She is holding a child, maybe four years old, with one hand and a cereal box with her left. And she is about to do something that Bush the president is either incapable of doing or figures isn’t necessary: make a budget decision based on common sense and economics.

The President clearly believes everything is possible. We can hemorrhage billions in Iraq, spend billions more to rebuild New Orleans and resurrect our very own Gulf, trim taxes and throw it all on a credit card someone else – our kids – will pay in the decades ahead. This guy, smiling in his rolled up shirtsleeves, has obviously never had to sweat while signing a check for college tuition, sneakers, groceries or to bail out a basement filled with water.

His fiftyish face is nearly wrinkle free because he has been blessed with a fortunate life and a “thanks dad” existence. He is charming and friendly, isolated and uncurious about the world that has come crashing down around him - not the political world. The real one; the universe filled with disasters large and small that ordinary folks navigate on a daily basis.

So, Katrina might be to George W. Bush what Tet was to the last president from Texas, Lyndon Johnson. In February 1968, the pictures from Vietnam resulted in LBJ’s administration joining the casualty list despite the fact that the North Vietnamese suffered a true military defeat. Yet it reality didn’t matter. Impressions won the day.

[Old and In the Way]

1. Another pundit exposes the naked Emporer.

No minced words here. I've lost a lot of respect for Barnicle over the years, but I'll give him credit for this brutally honest assessment.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

2. Bush doesn't "feel it"...he CAN'T, but he also doesn't TRY...

So it's really George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush that we're dealing with, not a man who went into the world, made it on his own, suffered setbacks or was ever held accountable.

George W. Bush really is "The Boy In The Plastic Bubble."

[PurityOfEssence]

3. He should say "thanks, dad", but he hates his old man and shows him up

at every chance he can. Hobbled with the reality of being a chickenshit nobody, his daddy's wimpiness preys upon what little soul he has. Needing to best his autocratic asshole dad, he puffs and struts to create an image that his actions show to be ridiculous in their inaccuracy. Truly, weak people posture to dispel the nagging reality of their faults.

The true ugliness and coldness of this clan makes my skin crawl.

[calico1]

4. As much as I agree that Johnson screwed up

in Vietnam, I don't really like this frequent comparison between bush* and Johnson. Johnson's domestic policy was excellent. And even though he screwed up Vietnam he did have a conscience about it when he realized things had gone terribly wrong. He was tormented by guilt over it, looked very old beyond his years and didn't live very long after he left office. bush* on the other hand looks like he doesn't have a care in the world, because he obviously doesn't. While I have read that Johnson lost many nights sleep, bush sleeps like a baby, I'm sure.

[cybildisobedience]

5. and just for the record

much of what Johnson accrued in life was the result of work, effort and well-honed political skills. He was an arm-twister, no doubt, but nothing compared to the tactics of the Bush-endorsed swiftboaters.