Completely Unsuited for Leadership
Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance today to watch Alberto Gonzales' demonstrate his near-total incompetence and obvious unsuitability for the job of Attorney General (though that's apparently exactly what he did). I did catch some TV-time though. I was out visiting the corporate headquarters of one of our clients, and as I was strolling through the lobby, I happened to pass a television that was tuned to CNN. To my surprise, instead of seeing ol' Alberto sweating it out before the judiciary committee, I saw George W. Bush speaking at what appeared to be some sort of hastily-arranged townhall venue in Ohio.
My first thought was that CNN had fallen for an obvious attempt by the White House to divert coverage away from Gonzales' embarrassing testimony. And that may well have been the White House's intention. But if so, I don't think it worked out quite the way they had planned.
After six years of the Bush presidency, we've all become somewhat accustomed to Bush's clear deficits as a leader. None of us turn on the television and expect to be moved by Bush's eloquence or reassured by his commanding grasp of the facts. Our collective expectations have been significantly lowered over the years. That said, there are still times when even these low expectations aren't enough to keep you from wondering how it is that this utterly unqualified man ever came to be the leader of the free world. As I stood there in the lobby today, I had one of those moments.
The only thing that gave me any comfort was when I got home tonight and noticed that I wasn't the only one who was similarly affected by Bush's remarks. Earlier today Atrios published a video clip of the five minutes or so of Bush's townhall performance that I happened to see as I stood in the lobby. Atrios posted it without comment under the title "Your President." Watch the clip and you'll see why no further comment was necessary:
As Joe Klein put it earlier today: "unplugged, unhinged, unscripted, incoherent."
Imagine for a second that you're an alien who just arrived on Earth . . . No, never mind. Not even necessary. Just imagine that you're yourself--from the year 1998--and that someone played this video clip for you and told you that the man in the video is the President of the United States, and he is trying to convince a hand-picked, fake-townhall audience to continue to support a disastrously ill-advised, horrendously unpopular, and seemingly unwinnable war in Iraq.
How totally unfathomable would such a revelation seem (above and beyond the whole 'seeing the future' aspect of it)? It's just really hard to believe we've come to this, that the most powerful nation in the world, at a crucial moment in its history, is being led by someone who is so obviously not up to the task.
Bush isn't an idiot. He's a moderately intelligent guy. But it's as plain as day that he doesn't have what it takes to be the leader a small company, much less a large country. His insecurity, his lack of curiosity, his unwillingness to re-examine his beliefs in the face of contrary facts, his complete inability to express a coherent thought without reading from a script: these are not the building blocks of competent leadership. This is a man who, by any objective standard, should never even have been considered for the job of president.
And on days like today, that fact is painfully obvious to anyone watching television.
My first thought was that CNN had fallen for an obvious attempt by the White House to divert coverage away from Gonzales' embarrassing testimony. And that may well have been the White House's intention. But if so, I don't think it worked out quite the way they had planned.
After six years of the Bush presidency, we've all become somewhat accustomed to Bush's clear deficits as a leader. None of us turn on the television and expect to be moved by Bush's eloquence or reassured by his commanding grasp of the facts. Our collective expectations have been significantly lowered over the years. That said, there are still times when even these low expectations aren't enough to keep you from wondering how it is that this utterly unqualified man ever came to be the leader of the free world. As I stood there in the lobby today, I had one of those moments.
The only thing that gave me any comfort was when I got home tonight and noticed that I wasn't the only one who was similarly affected by Bush's remarks. Earlier today Atrios published a video clip of the five minutes or so of Bush's townhall performance that I happened to see as I stood in the lobby. Atrios posted it without comment under the title "Your President." Watch the clip and you'll see why no further comment was necessary:
As Joe Klein put it earlier today: "unplugged, unhinged, unscripted, incoherent."
Imagine for a second that you're an alien who just arrived on Earth . . . No, never mind. Not even necessary. Just imagine that you're yourself--from the year 1998--and that someone played this video clip for you and told you that the man in the video is the President of the United States, and he is trying to convince a hand-picked, fake-townhall audience to continue to support a disastrously ill-advised, horrendously unpopular, and seemingly unwinnable war in Iraq.
How totally unfathomable would such a revelation seem (above and beyond the whole 'seeing the future' aspect of it)? It's just really hard to believe we've come to this, that the most powerful nation in the world, at a crucial moment in its history, is being led by someone who is so obviously not up to the task.
Bush isn't an idiot. He's a moderately intelligent guy. But it's as plain as day that he doesn't have what it takes to be the leader a small company, much less a large country. His insecurity, his lack of curiosity, his unwillingness to re-examine his beliefs in the face of contrary facts, his complete inability to express a coherent thought without reading from a script: these are not the building blocks of competent leadership. This is a man who, by any objective standard, should never even have been considered for the job of president.
And on days like today, that fact is painfully obvious to anyone watching television.
3 Comments:
this is exactly why I don't watch any of the State of the Union's. he is so painfully incoherent as a public speaker, this would be funny if it didn't make me so sick.
I forget who asked it...but the question was something like:
When did Karl Rove realize not whether Bush SHOULD be President, but that he COULD get him elected President?
(Which in the election really actually never happened *sigh*)
Although it may sound like a slam against a few people I've met who actually know what they're doing, George W. Bush would have made a reasonable good wine salesman in the Napa valley. He's actually very good in the mindless photo ops department and the posturing and strutting that's so necessary and also at the wheeling and dealing and wheedling needed to close sales for a tasty but otherwise overpriced fermented fruit.
He missed his real calling in life. It's painful that too few people saw how little he would bring to the presidency.
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