Dohiyi Mir
In Which NTodd Says His Peace
The Toxic Texan
Lots of lefty bloggers are posting the latest cover of the Economist--no lefty rag--because it's deliciously unflattering to Dubya. I took a look inside and found that a lead article is also full of goodies...
GEORGE BUSH ran for president in 2000 promising to raise the tone of debate in Washington. He was not saying merely that he wouldn't have sex with interns. He was talking about basic honesty, promising to look facts in the face, not to spin (too much), not to make policy by opinion polls, and to give an honest accounting of his actions. He reiterated that position last month in an interview: “The American people [will] assess whether or not I made good calls...And the American people need to know they've got a president who sees the world the way it is.”
Yet the administration's reaction to accusations by Richard Clarke, its former counter-terrorism co-ordinator, raises doubts not only over its judgments but, still more, over whether and how the administration accounts for its decisions. When set in the context of the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the ballooning budget deficit, this reaction raises profound questions about the administration's credibility, honesty and competence.
...
[T]he Clarke affair has a pattern: "never apologise, never explain."...The reason this pattern is disturbing is that all these features can be seen in the policy debates over both the war in Iraq and tax cuts—the policies on which Mr Bush deserves, above all else, to be judged.
In the end the article gets a bit squishy, noting that "worries about Mr Bush do not yet seem to be translating into potential votes for Mr Kerry. It is as if voters, faced with the president's lack of straight dealing, are concluding that truth may indeed be the first casualty of the war they want to win." However, the magazine apparently sent out an e-mail with the subject The Economist Reconsiders its Support of Bush: Toxic Texan's Flaws are Plain for All to See.
Are there enough lifeboats on the USS Karl Rove?
ntodd
