Bush Alone

Perspective is funny sometimes. Atrios linked to this article on Bush, and assumed everyone would read it the way that I did, which is that Bush is a deranged child, in denial, alone and profoundly unpopular. In the Post's words:

The reality has been daunting by any account. No modern president has experienced such a sustained rejection by the American public. Bush's approval rating slipped below 50 percent in Washington Post-ABC News polls in January 2005 and has not topped that level in the 30 months since.

But I was just listening to Hannity, and the right takes the article much differently, actually as a balance piece to the merciless hatchet job that Cheney took in the same paper last week. Hannity sees the article as illustrative of the man's steely resolve in the face of enormous odds. He reads strength into the isolation and unpopularity. Another take comes from Tbogg, who thinks that the Post is lost again, affixing a wisdom to this idiot prince that belies the sorry truth:

I think it is quite adorable that, six years into his term, the White House is still trying to sell the American public on the idea that George W. Bush is a DEEP thinker.

For me, the most telling part of the story is from the British historian, Andrew Roberts, whom Bush invited to the White House after he read his "History of the English Speaking Peoples". Bush's question to Roberts:

"What can I learn from history?"

Think about that. What sentient adult would ask such a question of a history professor? Would you ask a math professor what you could learn from math? It boggles the mind. It's a question a fourth grader would ask, if he was trying to look smart.

And then there is Charlie Rangel's recollection of a recent plane trip with Bush:

When he flew to New York to visit a Harlem school and promote his education program, he brought along New York congressmen on Air Force One, including Democrat Charles B. Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. The White House was in the midst of tough negotiations with Rangel over trade pacts. But Bush did not try to cut a deal with Rangel, chatting instead about baseball. "He talked a lot about the Rangers," Rangel said. "I didn't know what the hell he was talking about."

That might just be an epitaph for the era.