Richard Cohen: Amateurs and Zealots

[maha]

"Never explain, never complain," Henry Ford II said after wrecking a car that was not a Ford, accompanied by a lovely woman who was not his wife. This mantra, not original with Ford and always handy, could be the motto of the Bush administration. It has veered from one policy to another, changed direction on a dime, said one thing and done another -- all without complaining or explaining.

(snip)

But Bush is a different kind of president because he is a different kind of man. No one, for instance, questioned Clinton's intelligence or his knowledge. Bush, though, was widely viewed as slight, particularly unschooled in foreign affairs, where, above all, he was incurious, unquestioning and -- as we have learned -- unprepared. Always, though, he was certain.

That certainty was certainly misplaced. Bush's foreign policy is a shambles -- a war against the wrong enemy (Iraq and not worldwide terrorism), for the wrong reasons (where are those weapons of mass destruction?), a debacle in postwar Iraq (who are those terrorists?), a Middle Eastern road map to nowhere (wasn't Iraq going to make it all so easy?) and a string of statements about nearly everything (the cost of rebuilding Iraq, for instance) that have proved either untrue or just plain dumb. To make matters worse, truth-tellers have been punished while liars and fog merchants have remained in office.


Read Remainder

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Ouch!

For Bush, the danger is that this sorry record will revive the cartoon persona of a dummy -- not the steady custodian of our national security, as he seemed in the aftermath of Sept. 11, but a man without judgment, a naif who was manipulated by a cadre of hawks. For the rest of us, the danger is that the caricature was spot on, so obvious it was disregarded.

Spot on.

[jbfam4]

2. Great last paragraph.....wreck in road..

But these recent changes in course -- the dash to the U.N., the revised costs of rebuilding Iraq -- may represent Bush's last chance. In diplomacy, in foreign affairs, in the waging of war and maybe in protecting America, he has made mistake after mistake. Like Henry Ford II, he may never complain and he may never explain. But when you look back, there's still a wreck in the road.

Bush doesn't deserve a last chance...but he does need to explain, of course, we will never get an explaination.

[grytpype]

3. Wow. Another must-read editorial, very harsh on Bush.

Excerpt:

For Bush, the danger is that this sorry record will revive the cartoon persona of a dummy -- not the steady custodian of our national security, as he seemed in the aftermath of Sept. 11, but a man without judgment, a naif who was manipulated by a cadre of hawks. For the rest of us, the danger is that the caricature was spot on, so obvious it was disregarded.




Read the whole article. If this becomes the conventional wisdom, Bush is toast.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

6. deja vu.

[ewagner]

4. Ouch!

Is this what is being said about Bush "inside the beltway?"

If so, he's toast!

[City Lights]

5. Excellent article!

Thanks for posting.