posted on October 3, 2004 06:39:55 AM
Getting some insight on the president's uncomfortable relationship with reality
Published October 3, 2004
How many members of the Bush administration does it take to change a light bulb?
None. "There's nothing wrong with that light bulb. It has served us honorably. When you say it's burned out, you're giving encouragement to the forces of darkness. Once we install a light bulb, we never, ever change it. Real men don't need artificial light."
For weeks, Sen. John Kerry has been accusing President Bush of living in a "fantasy world," disconnected from what is happening in Iraq. Thursday's debate was reassuring proof that the incumbent is not impervious to bad news. Bush didn't give the impression of a president who is serenely confident that things are going well. He gave the impression of a guy who has been pole-axed by reality and is stumbling around half-dazed, even as he insists he's fine.
Whatever his own understanding of the dire situation, Bush doesn't want anyone else to recognize it. His strategy for succeeding in Iraq is to pretend we are succeeding, regardless of any information to the contrary.
In the debate, he spent less time disputing Kerry's evidence than faulting him for speaking the unspeakable. "I don't see how you can lead this country to succeed in Iraq if you say wrong war, wrong time, wrong place. What message does that send our troops? What message does that send to our allies? What message does that send the Iraqis?"
Hmm. Does he [Bush] think our allies would be surprised to hear the war was a mistake? Does he think Iraqis are all under the impression that the country is stable, prosperous and secure? Does he think it has never occurred to our soldiers, as they dodge mortar shells or pluck shrapnel out of their flesh, that this may not be the best idea their commander in chief ever had?
To say a candidate shouldn't criticize the decisions made in this war is like saying a football coach shouldn't make adjustments in strategy during the course of a game, lest his team be reduced to sobbing despair. If a team is getting outplayed, it does no good to tell the players to ignore the scoreboard and keep doing the same thing.
The president, however, is more obsessed with messages than Western Union.
"You cannot lead if you send mixed messages," he declared Thursday. "There was no doubt in my mind" about the need to remove Saddam Hussein, he said, as though being certain were just as good as being right.
One of the mixed messages Bush detected from Kerry was the senator's vote last year against an $87 billion appropriation that included money for body armor for U.S. troops. It was the vote that inspired Kerry's immortal line, "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it."
But that vote took place in October 2003--seven months after the war in Iraq began. The only reason the administration needed to buy body armor for our troops after the invasion was that it didn't buy it in sufficient quantities before the invasion.
Why not?
Because the administration assumed postwar Iraq would be no more turbulent than Bingo Night at the retirement home. Kerry may be faulted for voting against the funding, but his decision didn't cost American lives. Bush's lapse did.
Whatever the unfortunate aftermath, the president thinks he should be judged by his intentions. But wholesome motives are not enough--as conservatives have often noted in other contexts.
Back in the 1970s, there was a book about the failures of liberal social policy in New York City, titled "The Cost of Good Intentions." Liberals didn't go wrong in New York because they dearly wanted to promote dependency, foster crime, drive out businesses and bring on municipal bankruptcy--but in the end, their approach had those effects, and the only way to get different results was to adopt different policies.
It was mistakes like those that led conservatives to notice what they called "the law of unintended consequences." Bush may have intended the war in Iraq to eliminate weapons of mass destruction, prevent terrorism and implant democracy, but so far it has not lived up to his billing. On top of that, the war has had lots of nasty consequences he didn't anticipate. Americans and Iraqis are now paying the cost of Bush's good intentions.
When he extolled the need for positive messages, the president sounded like he was forcing himself to believe what Jiminy Cricket sang in "Pinocchio": "When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are. Anything your heart desires will come to you." That's true, but only in fairy tales.
DICK CHENEY SUPPORTS MY RELATIONSHIP: People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to
Let's have a BBQ, Texas style, ROAST BUSH
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YOU CAN'T HAVE BULLSH** WITH OUT BUSH.
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