Bungling Bush

This morning, Bill Kristol grudgingly admitted that yes, the President of the United States is indeed incompetent.:

BILL KRISTOL: I think it's become in people's minds an emblem of the administration that just isn't as serious about the competent execution of the functions of government as it should be. And even -- I'm struck talking to conservatives and Republicans -- they agree with the president on basic political philosophy, the they agree with his basic policy agenda, but they are worried that they just don't seem to be able to execute as well as they should be.

Now that President Bush's numbers have dipped below what Nixon's were during the Watergate scandal, conservatives are expressing their disapproval with the President in blunt terms and in large numbers.  These loyalists now feel that, thanks to those record-low approval numbers, the political climate affords them cover for speaking out against the President; it's "safe" now that the rest of the country is doing it.  They're  like little lemmings or prairie dogs who cautiously peek their heads above ground, survey the danger, then scuttle out from their holes into the light of day.  The fact that conservatives are now acknowledging the President's incompetence is testament to how fractured the Republican Party has become, and how threatened it feels by Democratic gains in the midterm elections.

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Just to show you how startling the Republican's claim of "incompetence" is, let's travel back in time to May 21, 2004, when House Minority Leader Pelosi stated that the President was incompetent.  The Republican backlash was furious and overwhelming, and Republicans demanded an apology.  So revolting was the claim of "incompetence" to the GOP that then House Majority Leader Tom Delay claimed that Pelosi's words actually endangered American lives:

"Nancy Pelosi should apologize for her irresponsible, dangerous rhetoric," DeLay, R-Texas, said. "She apparently is so caught up in partisan hatred for President Bush that her words are putting American lives at risk."

Don't tell conservatives that Pelosi was right, their heads might explode. The fact is that Republicans are forced to publicly admit what they've privately feared all along: the President simply is not fit to lead to this nation. From his handling of post-invasion Iraq, to the failures of Katrina, to the ballooning deficit and immoral budget, President Bush has neither the skills nor the knowledge requisite necessary to lead this nation off this dead-end track.   For all his rhetoric, for all his promises to both Republicans and the entire nation that he can be "trusted" to catch bin Laden, "trusted" with our nation's pocketbook, and "trusted" with our safety, President Bush simply is not competent enough to fulfill the duties of his office.

The administration's boilerplate response to criticisms of its performance has been "nobody could have known", as if even the most predictable events can't be foreshadowed because the universe has conspired against this President to keep all disasters hidden in a Jack-in-the-Box, only to be suddenly sprung upon  this President at the most (politically) inopportune moment.  Ignorance, not incompetence, has been the defensive shield of this Presidency.

In its editorial, "Heck of a Job, Mr. President," the Seattle Times explains that the nation no longer is buying the "nobody could have known" defense:

The Bush administration has a substantial credibility problem. Things it says turn out not to be true. Again and again.

Two troubling examples made the news last week, and they illustrate a serious problem rooted in a combination of political arrogance, incompetence and disdain for the audience. Often it seems the White House, or the president himself, offers the American public an incredulous shrug to punctuate the plea, "Who could have known?"  [...]

President Bush is great at sales, but he cannot deliver a product -- time after time.

And that's what conservatives are finally admitting: their leader has no follow-through.  The floundering, bumbling actions of this President have finally caught up with him, with his staunchest supporters now echoing Pelosi in their assertions of Presidential incompetence.  Well into his second term, this President is still an amateur.  He has barely admitted to the mistakes of his first term, let alone learned from them.  His Congress has turned on him, his propagandists in the press are heading for the hills, all because this President cannot lead, and cannot perform.  President Bush is an unpopular, ineffective, incompetent President. And it's not a question of being a lame duck--it's just being plain lame.