All hail the leader:

We were surprised by a couple of developments in the last week by ostensibly moderate reporters and commentators.

Exhibit One is David Sanger of the New York Times. If you watched Bush's press conference after the election, it was clear that he was ungracious and acting like a shit. But here is how Sanger described the president on Washington Week (5 Nov): (emp add)

The first thing that struck you was his tone. This was a George Bush we hadn't seen in a long time. He was jocular, he was needling the press. He had a confidence we last saw after the mission-accomplished moment, when we thought Iraq was a quick victory. We hadn't seen ever since things turned bad in Iraq. Suddenly, it was back. His line, "I earned capital in the campaign, political capital and now I intend to spend it," this was vintage George Bush.

Exhibit Two is Gloria Borger of U.S. News & World Report. Here is what she penned post-election: (emp add)

The good Bush instinct is to swing for the fences on domestic policy--reforming both Social Security and the tax code, for instance, which are laudable goals and no mean feats.

So, acting like a jerk is showing "confidence" and destroying a working social insurance program is "laudable". Terrific.

posted by Quiddity at 11/09/2004 07:06:00 AM