By his own description, President Bush does not do nuance. Neither does his administration. Especially after 9/11, the one thing it had was certainty. It knew what it knew, and because of that, on everything from tax cuts to going to war, Congress followed. The uncertain will follow the certain. It's a rule of life.
But a rereading of the "Meet The Press" transcript suggests that Bush's most critical quality - certainty - has oozed from him like helium from a balloon. Here was a man who was continually trying to pump himself up. He used the word "dangerous" over and over again, applying it to Saddam Hussein without every quite saying why. He repeatedly called the former dictator a madman, which is to say that he was capable of anything. In fact, though, he was capable of very little and in recent years had attempted almost nothing.
After Bush's "Meet the Press" performance, countless commentators tried to figure out why he had done so poorly. Many of them focused on performance - the part of politics that looks so easy until, as Wesley Clark did, you try it for yourself. Yes, Bush did not perform well. But even a brilliant actor needs material.
Others lamented Bush's verbal klutziness. If only he could talk like Tony Blair, one of them sighed. But the reason he cannot talk like Blair is because he doesn't think like Blair. The British prime minister can acknowledge an awkward fact, even a mistake, and keep on going. Bush can only insist that he is right. It doesn't matter that the facts have changed.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/164992p-144518c.html
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