Psychologizing the President

[rodeodance]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/09/20/BL2007092001274_pf.html
Psychologizing the President

Andrew Greeley writes in his Chicago Sun-Times opinion column: "It is a question about which many Americans wonder. Why can't he change his mind? . . .

"he president's endless optimism and refusal to admit errors are, to put it quite bluntly, abnormal behavior. . . .

"Some members of Alcoholics Anonymous will tell you that such behavior is not atypical in men who beat drunkenness by sheer willpower. They no longer drink, but they have not gone through the humility and the transformation of the self that the AA requires of its members. The president proved he could beat alcoholism without sitting around and talking about it (except with Billy Graham). I'm not saying this is the explanation of the president's sunny confidence about Iraq. I am saying, however, that it is a model that fits the data."

Sidney Blumenthal makes Greeley look charitable. Blumenthal writes in his Salon opinion column that for Bush, "here has never been a moment when we were not winning in Iraq. Victory has followed victory, from 'Mission Accomplished' to the purple fingers of the Iraqi election to, most recently, President Bush's meeting at Camp Cupcake in Anbar province with Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, the Sunni leader of the group Anbar Awakening (who was assassinated a week later). . . .

"Bush grasps at the straws of his own disinformation as he casts himself deeper into the abyss. The more profound and compounded his blunders, and the more he redoubles his certainty in ultimate victory, the greater his indifference to failure. He has entered a phase of decadent perversity, where he accelerates his errors to vindicate his folly. As the sands of time run down, he has decided that no matter what he does, history will finally judge him as heroic. . . .

"Bush's ever-inflating self-confidence hides his gaping fear of failure. His obsession with deference dem.........

[Wildewolfe]

1. Bush has...

... a Texas holdem personality. He goes all in ALL the time. I think it's like the old blackjack theory. If you loose, double your bet go again. Eventually you will win and get back all the money you lost in all bets up to that point.

What has to happen is congress has to limit him to tablestakes rather than keep upping his line of credit. Cut him off before he cuts the world off... at the knees.

[3waygeek]

2. You have to have a mind before you can change it n/t

[goodgd_yall]

3. As someone familiar with 12-step programs

bush would definitely have benefitted from a 12-step program. That might have knocked him off his delusional pedestal that he is always right. He seems to have no ability to honestly look at himself.