Thursday, December 23, 2004

The virtues of narcissism, at least for a president

On this fine day, Christmas Eve eve (one more shopping day left!), Timothy Noah, who writes "Chatterbox" for Slate, offers a good explanation for Bush's Bushisms and his inability to answer questions by the press. What I find most interesting is that Noah finally calls out what allows Bush to not only ignore questions about how realistic is his big reforms are(read: HOW ARE WE GOING TO PAY FOR ALL THIS?) but deflect the questions because he doesn't want to "debate" himself in public (how about in private then?)

Noah writes, assuming the role of Bush:

"What 'I' get to do, as president, is make promises that I know perfectly well can never be kept, and then to make Congress break those promises for me. I don't have to change 'the principles I believe in' because I know more responsible people in the government will violate them and take the blame.

"Those 'principles,' then, are really nothing more than the narcissism of a spoiled child. Why a Congress controlled by Bush's own party is willing to put up with this infantile buck-passing is anybody's guess. But it's time for the rest of us to recognize that when Bush says he can privatize Social Security cost-free, he's just putting his vanity on display. He only believes it because he can rely on his political allies not to."

You know who's really happy about all this smugness? The Chinese government because they own the American government's debt, all the billions and trillions dollars worth of it.

5 Comments:

At 11:43 AM, Blogger Duke of DeLand said...

Come on Dawn,
You are much brighter than to fall for the ploy of worrying about Bush's program for anything.....before he illuminates it!

I would NEVER offer up comments and explanations which could be used for limiting my discourse on a topic....particularly when I have not yet defined and polished the presentation.....

NOR would YOU!

Bush is going to offer up some truly astounding proposals.....He will not allow the Liberal Left to take potshots prior to his deliniation of the entire thing.

I agree....

If you, as a valid, card-carrying, member of the USA team can find fault with that, then you are on a "snipe hunt".....and if, my dear, you don't know what that is, just call on ole Duke to explain.....

I've seen lots of seasons, and run a few campaigns as well....

Duke of DeLand
http://pekinprattles.blogspot.com

 
At 5:12 PM, Blogger AlAsaad said...

Dubya (sorry, we in Kansas, especially those of us in the media, have always called him "dubya") follows an old Republican dictum that seems to work for them:
Tell them that ..."everyone will get everything they want and it won't cost nobody nothing":
The same basic Republican Party promise he made to we Americans about the war (I called the coming war "Junior's revenge" way back in October, 2001):
"We're gonna fight, we're gonna win and there won't be any causalities".
Add to that the poor position we find ourselves in vis-à-vis China and the Euro is letting Airbus eat BOEING'S commercial jetliner lunch.

 
At 4:37 PM, Blogger `Sam said...

Hitler and Stalin also won Time's good ol'"man of the year" award...I think it goes to who has the most effect on the world, for good or worse, with bush clearly falling in the ladder.

About bush's reckless fiscal responsibilities and privatization of SS, I think it's good for the democratic party....more and more independent voters are starting to realize that the Republican Party can't reduce spending or government. In most cases, racking up huge debts and creating more, less-efficient government. So let bush go on his SS folly and show America how insane these neo-con fucks actually are.

 
At 5:30 PM, Blogger Jonathan Versen said...

You go to Walmart! Buy stuff you don't need. Debt not gonna pay itself. Go Now!

 
At 9:45 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Uhh...what?

Do any of you guys speak English? I'm as anti-government as anybody, but I don't get it. Help me out here. By "narcissim", do you mean egocentric? What about cost free Social Security privatization -- who ever said it was cost free? Not Bush. Believe me, I'd love to trash that notion, but it ain't there.

Also, why is it that the Chinese own our debt? Have they been issuing savings bonds? Fortune Cookies? Did I miss out?

 

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