I saw this today from Joe Conason:
May 25, 2004
Burdened by his record low poll ratings, the president of the United States sought last night to convince the nation and the world that he knows what he is doing in Iraq. He succeeded only in proving that he has no new ideas and no plausible plan -- except to tear down that prison whose name he cannot pronounce. Americans are losing confidence in President Bush, not so much because they distrust his motives, although many do, as
because they question his competence. The aggressive unilateralism once regarded by Bush's political strategists as their most powerful domestic political weapon is now turned around and pointing straight at them.
For this humiliating reversal, they can thank the neo-conservatives who convinced Bush that they -- and they alone -- were capable of managing foreign and defense policy that would serve American interests. So much for another major myth long promoted and cherished by the Republican right (including many figures who are now seeking distance from the increasingly discredited neocons).
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http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2004/05/25/incompetence/index_np.html>
Well, that sounded a bit familiar. So I went digging into my files and found this is a familiar theme.
“(Decision on war with Iraq)..Why this rush to prejudge a case not yet made for a decision not yet made? Let me decode a central fear of some critics:
They do not think that George W. Bush and his divided administration are capable of implementing an orderly and successful military campaign in Iraq without inflicting major casualties and national damage on the United States.
They don't think this president and all his squabbling men are up to the job, … the steady drumroll of opinion pieces by former national security advisers and CIA chiefs … suggest that some of them
share the open skepticism of many of my journalistic colleagues
over Bush's intellectual and leadership abilities..How else to explain the judicious Scowcroft, …going postal and public rather than seeking a quiet meeting with Bush the younger to explain why attacking Iraq is a bad idea? …(Does) Scowcroft really look at George W. and see the president, rather than the son of the president? (Jim Hoagland, Washington Post, 8/25/02)
And this…
Over the past few weeks there has been an epidemic of epiphanies. There's a long list of pundits who previously supported Bush's policy on Iraq but have publicly changed their minds. None of them quarrel with the goal; who wouldn't want to see Saddam Hussein overthrown?
But they are finally realizing that Mr. Bush is the wrong man to do the job. And more people than you would think - including a fair number of people in the Treasury Department, the State Department and, yes, the Pentagon - don't just question the competence of Mr. Bush and his inner circle; they believe that America's leadership has lost touch with reality.
(PAUL KRUGMAN NY Times, March 14, 2003)
He wasn't up to the job from day one, and they knew it.