Wait a minute, that's craziness, right?
We're talking about King George himself. Bush the Lesser. The guy who started an unlawful and unscrupulous war in the very heart of the Middle East, and sent American boots into downtown Baghdad. The guy who oversaw the worst global economic downturn since the Great Depression. The guy whose mangling of the English language and overall stupidity is fodder for comedians to this day. The guy who made a mockery of US standing around the world, of Americans' trust in their government, and of the office of the Presidency itself. The guy who made Dick F***ing Cheney Vice-President of the United States.
It can't get any worse than that.... right?
We know it can.
It is beyond doubt that it can get a lot worse, and you don't necessarily need to bring up the likes of Grant or Johnson to prove it. A perfect example was sitting right across from W the whole time.
What if it had been Cheney sitting in the big chair, I wonder?
How much are Mitt Romney and Dick Cheney alike?
Dick Cheney got a new heart, and Willard Romney seems to have misplaced his. Coincidence?
Chilling questions.
Almost as chilling as this one: How much worse a job would Mitt Romney do as President than George W. Bush?
I think the answer could be a helluva lot worse.
More below the fold.
I haven't seen much of King George in a while. Since round about President Obama's inauguration it seems like I haven't seen George W. Bush in any kind of political capacity at all. He's been nowhere; hiding out on his ranch. Dick Cheney by contrast has been everywhere; everywhere and, of course, vocally angry with President Obama. Most people of the Right-Wing persuasion are vocally angry with President Obama, so Cheney's bleating is not so surprising. What is surprising is the silence eminating from the Bush the Lesser Ranch. And the relatively muted Romney endorsement which eminated from Bush the Greater.
One might think those Bushes are embarrassed or something.
What are the real reasons for this peace and quiet? Who knows. A desperate attempt to salvage political capital seems the most likely. It's a tricky choice, though, because the only crowd they could hope to persuade resembles a pack of hyenas these days, and among hyenas silence is cowardice, and as a rule one mustn't show cowardice in the hyena pack.
Hell, maybe they are embarrassed. I don't rule it out.
Just for the sake of a muse, consider if Willard was in Bush the Lesser's shoes right now. What if Willard Romney endured some particularly tragic events, but then f***ed up big in his subsequent responses and in general, and then had to choose whether to keep his mouth shut or not in a subsequent campaign season wherein he himself is rightfully shamed and denounced? I don't think Romney could do it. I really don't. Even if it matters little because he will never be President again, I don't think he has it in himself to stand by while people drag his name through the mud, especially if he deserves it. I think his likely response to this imagined scenario is evidenced by his responses to every other bump in his Path To Greatness: Bully. Lie. Repeat. Like how Dick Cheney does it.
I think Willard is overall a better liar than George W. Bush. While he certainly seems to care about his own financial capital, Willard doesn't seem to care overmuch about political capital, certainly not at all about silly things like "embarrassment". Worst of all, he's not "stupid" enough to allow himself to be seen as a coward, while being plenty stupid enough to simply lie his pants off. Concurrent with the strategy he has been employing for decades I think all along he'd have been lying through his teeth about the whole mess, telling as many lies as he possibly can over the airwaves, and making the most sycophantic liars he can find his campaign staff.
He'd likely be saying angrily that he has consistently said that he was against invading Iraq from the beginning, and of course be following that with: "But the world is better off now, right?" "It was just my evil twin," Willard would say, "whose name just happens to be Mitt, doing all that yammering about WMD's and how Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda have been in bed all along." But, once again, he'd be insisting that since everything worked out we shouldn't waste thought or time on the past.
He'd have laughed inside at the news that Barack Obama killed Osama bin Laden; because he probably would have pardoned bin Laden anyway soon after toppling Saddam Hussein.
He'd be towing the line concerning any tax-cuts for the rich he may have implemented; probably saying outright that it is impossible that tax-cuts for his yachting buddies job-creators to have been the cause of the recession, and all the economists who say otherwise just say that because they are Communists.
He'd likely be saying that he was on the ground in New Orleans during Katrina, he was just so fast that nobody saw him. He'd probably be saying similar things about FEMA's response to the crisis, and then probably adding in a rueful tone that people really should be more grateful.
And of course he'd be screaming his lungs out with all the other hyenas about how we shouldn't think about the world prior to 1/20/09. After all it's Obama, my friend, who is ruining the country.
Just a muse? Maybe not.
That scenario and behavior, though it is obviously pure speculation, seem all too plausible to me. Americans are trying to get inside Mitt's head; trying to savvy what makes him tick. Most people already suspect the truth: what makes Willard Romney tick is Willard Romney, and little to nothing else.
As for Mitt's other life as Governor of Massachusetts? Meh. To get elected and stay there Willard Etch-a-Sketch Romney will put on any face he thinks the voters like. If he was running for Governor of Texas he'd be talking with a drawl and wearing a six-gun on a belt with a ridiculously large Longhorns buckle. If he was running for Governor of California he'd no doubt grow his hair long and start carrying a surfboard everywhere. With Bush one could be certain he would turn the same lolling and befuddled face on every situation. W. was stupid, but he was consistently stupid. Mitt Romney is not consistent about anything except for the fact that he is inconsistent about almost everything.
When I think of President Mitt Romney I envision a man who sees dollar signs in every tragedy, including ones for which he himself is to blame. I see a man who sees nothing but political gain in failures of those he calls enemy, no matter what such failures might mean for the country. I see a man who would call you his best asset one minute, and then trim your position and tell you to clean out your desk the next. I see a man who cares not who or how many he tramples in his King-of-the-Hill game of life, so long as he wins.
I wonder how he would've handled the attacks on the World Trade Center, or Katrina. I wonder what a Mitt Romney Presidency would look like, and I'm not pleased at all with what I'm wondering. I think it would look a lot like what a Cheney Presidency would have looked like. Slightly more brains, but not near enough, and a whole lot less trust.
Yeah, I said it.
I'll say it again, I trust W. more than I trust Mittens. It's an extremely low bar, to be sure; my words here are not meant to imply that Bush has somehow atoned for all the horrible he managed in his eight years playing with his daddy's gun. They are not. He has not, yet. Doubtless there's little hope for that coming to pass. Oh well, a guy can hope. And there's this, he can never play with that gun again.
Bottom line is, I trust Mitt Romney less than George Bush, the Lesser or the Greater.
I trust nothing about Mitt Romney, just as I trust nothing about Dick Cheney.
I wouldn't trust him with my money.
I wouldn't trust him if he gave me his, because then I'd be in his pocket.
I wouldn't trust him to give me advice on a NASCAR race.
I wouldn't trust him to give me advice on how to store my car
or on how to travel with my pet
or on anything else under the sun.
I wouldn't trust him if he lived across the street and our kids liked to hang out together.
I wouldn't trust him to go get help if I was stranded on the side of the road.
I wouldn't trust him to keep his cool under the heat of war.
I would never trust Mitt Romney with the job of President of the United States.
Seriously, how could anybody?