Do not make the mistake of thinking that because my conclusion is the same as another person's that my reasoning is the same
I get to take extended breaks from mainstream political topics because so many folks do it well, all I have to do is point and go, "Yeah, what he said."
Case in point one, from Brad DeLong:
Bush: "I do not need to explain why I say things. -- That�s the interesting thing about being the President. -- Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don�t feel like I owe anybody an explanation."
O, my heart sank when I read that quote. I�ve been thinking about it, off and on, ever since.
I recognize that behavior. Lord help me, I�ve seen it done. It�s one of the tactics you can use if you�re in an executive-level job that�s beyond your abilities, you have to have meetings with underlings who know more than you do, and your only concern is to save face while making sure they�re giving you what you want.
Case in point two, from Digby, discussion David Brooks' editorials on Bush:
In the first column he portrayed the muscular Bush administration as being unwilling to admit it was wrong --- but ending up doing the right thing nonetheless. Never complain, never explain. Just get the job done, dammit. Peggy Noonan and the girls sigh deeply and call for another Mojito. He's no jump roping Clinton. He'll take the heat to get the job done. Real Men never apologize. They're too busy saving the world.
Today, in a twofer, he twists Dean's straight talking image and real record of accomplishment into one of a phony blue blooded aristocrat who was bred for leadership and merely pretends to be a regular guy. This is designed to sow doubts among his followers about his authenticity.
Then, setting aside his obvious mental deficiencies and life long failures, he uses the same WASP association to elevate the image of the real inbred Little Prince to show that his silver spoon actually well prepared him for leadership.
The first two Brooks columns have very creatively made Bush appear to be a strong, decisive leader, who by birth and experience was destined to lead the world -- a man unaffected by the criticism of the chattering classes, focused only on results. He's done this in a much more subtle way than the bludgeoning you find on Fox or the Wall Street Journal editorial page, but we should not mistake it for anything but the Bush marketing it really is.
It's what *she* said, actually: the meat is from Teresa Nielsen Hayden, a woman lucky enough to work in the Flatiron Building in Manhattan...
I was going to just fix it and not say anything, but that woud be Bush-league of me.