Richard Cohen has a well-written article today re why I loathe George W Bush. Okay, pick your reasons, from FMA to iraq. My major loathing has to do with one major broken promise. Living near Ground Zero, I expected Junior to rally the country and act like a President for all of us. I will never forgive him for failing.
link
"I know how to lead," Bush said that day in Iowa -- but he does not. Leadership does not mean going your own way. It means getting others to follow, constructing a consensus. Bush has failed to do this, and the failure is not due to a lack of leadership skills. It's purposeful. The narrowness of the election kept Bush close to his conservative base. Among other things, he has nominated judges who are not mere conservatives but true right-wing reactionaries. In two cases his nominees had to be sneaked onto the bench by fiat, not by Senate confirmation. Just recently Bush threw his base the red meat of a frivolous constitutional amendment that would bar gay marriage. It's a sop to homophobes and Bush knows it. His body language gives him away.
I am constantly surprised at the animosity toward Bush. When, for instance, I said in a recent column that he had handled himself "admirably" in the days after Sept. 11, 2001, I was barraged by dissenting e-mails. I thought I had said something unremarkable, but clearly Bush has become so divisive a figure that some people cannot give him credit even for what, to be fair, he has earned credit for. He did, for a moment, unite a wounded nation. Pity he could not or would not make it last.
That's like when Chris Matthews went to Iowa and was 'shocked' at Bush-loathing. Yeah. You need to get out more, tweety.