Attention Deficit: TNR (a jawdropping must read)

[tibbiit]

Attention Deficit
Andrrew Sullivan (apparently hell is starting to freeze)

http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=fisking&s=sullivan020904

Many conservative commentators greeted the president's "Meet The Press" interview with considerable gloom . President Bush, they argued, seemed tired, bumbling, didn't actually answer the questions asked, and failed to address the most important issues out there in the country. I disagree somewhat. I felt his answers on the war and its general rationale, his willingness to concede errors, and his demeanor were strong and appealing to those who aren't already turned off by this president's character and personality. But it was in the second part of the interview that things, to my mind, unraveled. Bush offered no compelling rationale for reelecting him. He offered excuses on the economy; and, on the critical matter of the country's fiscal health, he seemed scarily out of touch. Here's the most worrying section of the interview, with some of my comments:

snip

One simple, perhaps nit-picky, point: To the question "Why ... would you allow ... this kind of deficit disaster?" the president replies, "Sure." Sure? I think I know what the president means. It's a verbal place-saver, a pause. But it's surely worth pointing out that I know of no one who can reply to an allegation that he is about to deny with an actual affirmative. "Did you kill your wife?" "Sure. I never touched her." Who talks this way?

snip

OK, let me put this gently here. Is he out of his mind? (lol) The minor reforms to Medicare are indeed welcome in providing more choice and some accountability in the program. But the major impact of his Medicare reform is literally trillions of dollars in new spending for the foreseeable future. He has enacted one of the biggest new entitlements since Richard Nixon; he has attached it to a population that is growing fast in numbers; and the entitlement is to products, prescription drugs, whose prices are rising faster than almost everything else in the economy. Despite all this, the president believes it will "help the fiscal situation of our long-term projection"? Who does he think he's kidding? It's like a man who earns $50,000 per year getting a mortgage for a $5 million house and bragging that he got a good interest rate.

snip

I'm not one of those who believes that a good president has to have the debating skills of a Tony Blair or the rhetorical facility of Bill Clinton. I cannot help liking the president as a person. I still believe he did a great and important thing in liberating Iraq (although we have much, much more to do). But, if this is the level of coherence, grasp of reality, and honesty that is really at work in his understanding of domestic fiscal policy, then we are in even worse trouble than we thought. We have a captain on the fiscal Titanic who thinks he's in the Caribbean.

great article read it and smile, especially in light of who wrote it! hehe
tib

[feminazi]

1. great article

thanks for posting, tibbiit

[HighJinx]

2. This is exactly what I was hoping to see today

Bush is disconnected to reality. He has no grasp of economics. Probably never had to balance a checkbook.

This is a must read and a must circulate to any who are truly concerned about the future of the republic.:kick:

[judge_smales]

3. And not just that! Look

At the "related links" below the article: "AWOL
Was Michael Moore right about Bush's military service?", "Panic Room
Is the Bush administration choosing a Republican future in Washington over a democratic future in Iraq?", "Kay Sera
David Kay is right that there was an Iraq intelligence failure. He's just wrong to let the White House off the hook."

What a great issue!

[woofless]

4. With fiends like this

who needs enemas?

(pun intended)

[ixion]

5. bumbling

well, I've thought that about him since before he stole the WH. Nice to see Sullivan finally sees the Mad Chimp for what he is.

[MISSDem]

6. It is truly scary to me that this man

is President of the United States!

[Snellius]

7. Like, duh, Andy. What took you so long?

All this was obvious 3 years ago.

It's been interesting to watch Andrew Sullivan's slow but steady realization that, yes indeed, the Doofus in Chief is, indeed, -- as was obvious to anyone not wearing ideologically red-colored blinders -- is indeed just as stupid and ignorant and smug and clueless as he seemed. Great insight, Andy. What took you? But at least you got there.

[ex_jew]

8. Isn't it funny how easily intelligent people get it all wrong ?

Something pops into their heads, perhaps the idea that Bush is just the leader we need, and they are so good at putting it into words that they never consider how wrong they might be. David Gelterner, computer scientist and newspaper columnist is just the same way. In yesterday's LA Times, he had a piece to the effect that out blunder into Iraq was a "wonderful mistake", since we are honor-bound to liberate all oppressed people (even against their will). Total tripe, and yet I'm sure he believes it. Sense and intelligence are two completely different things.

[teryang]

9. Defense spending is discretionary

...and it is being financed by over 200 billion from FICA revenues! Yes those entitlements need to be reduced to make room for more defense contractor profits.

How does taking away the power of government to bargain for its drug purchases save money?

[wabeewoman]

10. I thought it interesting that he finds bush likeable.

To me that is the biggest mystery of all. What is likeable about the man?? I truly have not heard anything he has said or done that was even a tiny bit likeable...

[Merlin]

12. Because Sullivan himself is a miserable, simpering hypocrite. n/t

.

[mac56]

14. Stockholm syndrome.

nm

[Davis_X_Machina]

11. Why Sullivan is pissed over the deficit....

...when Junta Boy and his supporters are hell-bent on denying him as many fundamental Constitutional and human rights as they can get away with, is what I don't understand.

Is anybody that venal?

[Skittles]

13. WHY do people claim to like that piece of SHIT "as a person" ?????

HE'S F***ING DISGUSTING.