How Bush works on a 'needs-not-to-know' basis

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Unk's Wild Wild West : One Thread

Stuff we read in OZ

How Bush works on a 'needs-not-to-know' basis
With W trapped in a bubble before he even gets to the White House, Maureen Dowd wonders what the future holds for the United States.

Wis starting to weird me out. Why is our kinda-sorta chief executive the low man on his own totem pole? We knew that his political nannies told him stuff only on a need-to-know basis. But now that the guy is seconds away from the White House, we learn that his handlers deal with him on a needs-not-to-know basis.

Last week in Austin, our Wannabe President George Bush, miniature clone of President George Bush, happily told reporters that Dick Cheney had "had no heart attack".

The hospital, the Cheney family and Bush's press aide, Karen Hughes, knew that Cheney had, that morning, undergone a heart procedure. But Hughes did not tell that to her boss before he spoke so rosily and ignorantly about Cheney's condition.

When the election ended, Mini-Me was shocked that he had not won in a landslide. His strategists had apparently failed to inform him that things were getting tight. Did they not trust him with the information, fearing he might get cranky?

Presidents get dangerously insulated in the White House. But this boy's in a bubble before he even gets to the Oval bubble.

Sure, Al Gore, aka Monsieur Tussaud, is an insufferable maniac for detail who hates delegating and is engineering every move in Florida. He's so consumed with absurd attempts to prove he actually won Florida by nine votes that one friend described him as a "lost soul".

But Mini-Me also seems lost, because he isn't consumed enough with nailing down and planning his presidency. The grown-ups keep sending him off to play. They know he doesn't like messes, he doesn't do serious well and he can't do follow-up answers except to refer reporters to James Baker, his Manchurian operator.

So it's best to let him go fool around at the ranch or go to the gym for three-hour workouts while they take care of complicated stuff like the Supreme Court and the transition, and while they try to restore Poppy's White House to its original glory.

During the campaign, W had a swagger, a gunslinger pose. But when he comes out to face the cameras he blinks and shrinks, looking tremulous and frightened, dwarfed by US flags. He struggles to exude authority. He furrows his brow, trying to look more sagacious, but he ends up looking as if he has indigestion. Appearing confused at his own speech, he seems like a first-grade actor in a production of James and the Giant Peach. Are his blinks Morse code for "Oh, man, don't let that teleprompter break"?

Republicans sanguinely compare him to Ronald Reagan, but at least President Reagan had the gift of reassurance before the camera. It's telling that CNN's Candy Crowley, who covers the Texas governor, is not only better on TV, but much harder-working and better informed than her subject.

Karen Hughes tried to make Mini-Me appear statesmanlike by saying that, while no foreign leaders had called to congratulate W, he had placed a call to congratulate Vicente Fox on his upcoming unclouded inauguration as president of Mexico. Whenever he seems callow, W cleaves to his friendly neighbour to the south to show international flair.

Asked on Tuesday why Mini-Me had retreated again to the Waco ranch, Hughes said it was "a tranquil place where it's easy to do some thinking and reflecting." Nice try. Mini-Me is not Proust in the Brambles.

W does not seem to grasp that the president can't delegate the presidency itself. Of course, his aides might not have told him that yet.

The New York Times

======================= Regards from Down Under (I thought we had problems, but you mob lead by example...we just follow)

-- Pieter (zaadz@icisp.net.au), November 30, 2000

Answers

Pieter, too bad you're subjected to stuff like this but the NYT is all around the globe. Funny, the media first says Bush shouldn't be appointing cabinet members, then they rip into Bush for being too laid back. Make up your minds guys.

David Letterman did a piece last night on Day 2 of the Prime Minister election. Of course there wasn't any "news" to report.

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), November 30, 2000.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ