Bush reaches a career high for denouncing events as "intolerable"

[ProSense]

Bush Confounded by the 'Unacceptable'

President Wields Word More Freely as His Frustration Rises and His Influence Ebbs

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 13, 2006; Page A10

President Bush finds the world around him increasingly "unacceptable."

In speeches, statements and news conferences this year, the president has repeatedly declared a range of problems "unacceptable," including rising health costs, immigrants who live outside the law, North Korea's claimed nuclear test, genocide in Sudan and Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Bush's decision to lay down blunt new markers about the things he deems intolerable comes at an odd time, a phase of his presidency in which all manner of circumstances are not bending to his will: national security setbacks in North Korea and Iraq, a Congress that has shrugged its shoulders at his top domestic initiatives, a favorability rating mired below 40 percent.

But a survey of transcripts from Bush's public remarks over the past seven years shows the president's worsening political predicament has actually stoked, rather than diminished, his desire to proclaim what he cannot abide. Some presidential scholars and psychologists describe the trend as a signpost of Bush's rising frustration with his declining influence.

In the first nine months of this year, Bush declared more than twice as many events or outcomes "unacceptable" or "not acceptable" as he did in all of 2005, and nearly four times as many as he did in 2004. He is, in fact, at a presidential career high in denouncing events he considers intolerable. They number 37 so far this year, as opposed to five in 2003, 18 in 2002 and 14 in 2001.

Through a spokesman and then in a televised statement, he declared North Korea's claimed nuclear test "unacceptable" before and after it occurred Oct. 9. But he could also be heard on Jan. 9 lecturing students at an elementary school in Glen Burnie, Md., that their recent scores on math and reading proficiency tests were "unacceptable."

more...

Audio from Oct. 11 -- Kerry slams Bush on Iraq and "intolerable" North Korea

[Fresh_Start]

1. Teach Bush the word 'Inconceivable'

He's a blowhard dumbass like the character in Princess Bride.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Bush is reaping what he has sown. He and his policies have been

'unacceptable' to me since Jan. 2001!

[David__77]

3. I love this article.

It's scientific and based on readily-available information, and makes an incisive analysis. Bush is an idealist and cannot fathom that the material world will not abide by his deciderisms.

[Mz Pip]

4. Wow, he's using some

5 syllable words. Should I be impressed?

Mz Pip
:dem:

[hijinx87]

5. intolerable?

he certainly seems to be tolerating them . . . in droves. :eyes: