I Cogitate
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First Ignatius, then Klein, is Broder next?
In our March 27 blog entry, note was made that ultimate mainstreamer David Ignatius of The Washington Post had finally given up on George Bush. Yes, it took far too long but finally happened.
Here's Joe Klein, someone who seems to never miss an opportunity to pre-emptively attack Democrats, finally getting IT. IT being that George Bush is a never-before-experienced basketcase of a national leader, so lacking in the personal prerequisites and so incapable of performing the necessary tasks. For far too long Bush has been afforded bend- over-backwards, time-after-time opportunities by far too many in the mainstream press in a manner similar to waiting for Godot. They refuse to admit that what has been on view for six years is the real George Bush
An Administration's Epic CollapseKlein'se final paragraph, which I generally don't quote for fear of preventing readers from reading the entire article, is killer:
Joe Klein
TIME
April 5, 2007
The first three months of the new Democratic Congress have been neither terrible nor transcendent. A Pew poll had it about right: a substantial majority of the public remains happy the Democrats won in 2006, but neither Nancy Pelosi nor Harry Reid has dominated the public consciousness as Newt Gingrich did when the Republicans came to power in 1995. There is a reason for that. A much bigger story is unfolding: the epic collapse of the Bush Administration.
The three big Bush stories of 2007--the decision to "surge" in Iraq, the scandalous treatment of wounded veterans at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys for tawdry political reasons--precisely illuminate the three qualities that make this Administration one of the worst in American history: arrogance (the surge), incompetence (Walter Reed) and cynicism (the U.S. Attorneys)...
...When Bush came to office--installed by the Supreme Court after receiving fewer votes than Al Gore--I speculated that the new President would have to govern in a bipartisan manner to be successful. He chose the opposite path, and his hyper-partisanship has proved to be a travesty of governance and a comprehensive failure. I've tried to be respectful of the man and the office, but the three defining sins of the Bush Administration--arrogance, incompetence, cynicism--are congenital: they're part of his personality. They're not likely to change. And it is increasingly difficult to imagine yet another two years of slow bleed with a leader so clearly unfit to lead.Go here for the entire article.
Klein assumed George Bush's capabilities because it was the 'de rigueur' thing to do, that being anyone assuming the presidency MUST be qualified in temperament, capability and intelligence. Count Klein as yet another member of the press succumbing to 'positional' shock and awe gullibility, unwilling to measure the individual inhabiting the post vis-a-vis his actual employment, military service, educational history and accomplishments. Terms such as the 'MBA President,' an 'oilman,' one of the 'owners of a baseball franchise' were simply swallowed without any proverbial 'taste-testing.'
Such is the Conventional Wisdom (CW) permeating D.C..
Unfortunately, those counter to the CW framework were and continue to be labeled wackos and Bush-haters, people to be simultaneously pitied and pilloried.
However CW has never applied to and never will to George Bush. He's been an anomaly his entire life and has simply carried on as such during his presidential tenure.
But some saw this disconnect prior to his election. Others noticed it early on in Bush's first term. But the majority in the 'influential press' refused to believe their own eyes. The worst of the lot blamed 9/11 and the resulting wars for blinding them and, remarkably, others still cannot see their blatant misjudgment. Even the majority of those who have now 'seen the light' cannot acknowledge the folly of their respective failings.
Kudos to Klein for his finally getting 'there' although, sadly yet predictably, there is no 'mea culpa' offering from him.
Should we bother holding our breath for the dean of the Washington press corps, David Broder, to ever finally enter the reality zone?
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