Nancy Nall takes the point I was circuitously making in my metaphor-heavy post (hey -- sometimes you just feel like using some imagery!) last night and shortens it into a two paragraph indictment. Well done! And her question stands: why would Bush's handlers, on the day when new Orleans was experiencing perhaps the greatest tragedy in American history, let him be photographed goofing around with a guitar? Why would they let him out at all? If he needed to leave his Ranch Set, they should've forced him to go to a Church Set (it's right across the lot, just take a left when you reach Karl Rove's trailer). Very weird.
Unless Bush's handlers are themselves being handled. Digby's made this point before, but more and more, I'm think it's right. Second term Bush sees himself as a political war god. He is invincible. A senior. Class president. He already got accepted to college (thanks, dad!). He's the big man on campus. Nobody's going to expel him. Hell, nobody's going to discipline him! He doesn't have to listen to his teachers, his guidance counselors, or even his friends. He can do what he wants.
And doesn't that seem to be what he's doing? A month on the ranch, a bike ride with Lance Armstrong, a late-night little league softball game, a quixotic quest to kill Social Security, a play date with country rockers. He's begun to use the presidency to, well, have a little fun. And when Cindy Sheehan tried to ruin VaCay and he said she couldn't detract from his life, he meant it. None of this can. Bush didn't want to be President, he wanted to win the presidency, crush the Democrats, beat his father's record. And so he has! And now, while New Orleans flood and Iraq burns, it's time to enjoy it. He's hired people to deal with the crises, he's got enterprising freshmen completing his homework, he's earned this.
What?
How many dead?
My poll numbers are where?
The 2006 elections could do what?
Fucking flood.
