The Words of a Great Republican

The only thing lower than President Bush's approval ratings are the expectations we have when he speaks. Just watch the faces of his team along the side wall at those rare press conferences. Complete sentences are met with relief. Big words guarantee a lollipop back in the Oval Office. They call this man plainspoken, but that is just another White House lie. The truth is the man's brain is incapable of monitoring what he is saying while he is talking. That's why he rarely catches himself after one of these ridiculous Bushisms. We all misspeak but most people's brains have a little alarm that detects when something goes wrong. Often smart people will correct themselves several sentences after the error. This means even though their mind is engaged in talking, a part of it is still mulling over what has come out. President Bush does not have that. His entire brain is struggling just to speak so there is nothing left over to listen. That is why when he begins to lose it, he immediately panics and you can be sure that he will not recover. His eyes get wide, his team along the wall tenses up, and the cottage industry of book publishers who make a living selling his inane verbal gaffes prepares to enter another classic in their galleys.
None of this is a problem compared to the stuff President Bush thinks. It is the level of his thoughts that should really concern all Americans. We are slipping into authoritarian rule here. We have a leader who has convinced himself that he should be able to ignore the Constitution and the Law anytime he wants. It's intellectually lazy, and mediocre to arrive at this position, but what else could we expect? President Bush is using his power to compensate for his own shortcomings. He is using his time in office to take revenge - to show the world that after all the cruel assessments of his sub-par brain, he is the Man and we better not forget it. It is the perfect marriage: His vast ego is protected from self-criticism by the minute nature of his intelligence.
It was not always so from Republican Presidents. Here is a quote from Dwight Eisenhower. Try and imagine George W. saying anything this profound. Even if he just had to read it, he would screw it up, and when he did he would go right on talking, oblivious to the words coming out of his mouth. Here's Ike:
""If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... Is freedom. In most communities it is illegal to cry "fire" in a crowded assembly. Should it not be considered serious international misconduct to manufacture a general war scare in an effort to achieve local political aims? Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage. This world of ours... Must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect. Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace. When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war."