Over on Brad DeLong's blog I noticed this
interview with Bush:
I just want you to know I not only strongly believe in the decisions I make, I'm optimistic that they're going to work -- very optimistic.
The captain of the Titanic was an optimist too -- "Oh we're not going to hit anything. Full speed ahead." Can anyone think of other examples of speeding optimistically toward disaster?
I keep hearing the talking heads say that leaders have to be optimists. Do you think this is true? Is that a good thing?
The interview also contains this gem:
That's George Washington, the first President, of course. The interesting thing about him is that I read three -- three or four books about him last year. Isn't that interesting?
So the interesting thing about George Washinton is that George Bush read three or four books about him.