OF LEGACIES AND LEADERS. Mike Crowley notices Sy Hersh's ascribing Bush's enthusiasm for an attack on Iran to the "legacy thing": Bush wants to be remembered for saving Iran, not merely wrecking Iraq. Which reminds me, anybody else remember the press's obsession with Bill Clinton's second-term legacy-building? I can't recall Clinton ever mentioning it, but the media's spin on every single one of his late initiatives, no matter how innocuous or broadly supportable, was that that self-interested ego-hound was deploying American capital, treasure, and spirit to ensure himself some piece of political immortality. Meanwhile, Bush tried to restructure Social Security, is hinting at a grand bargain to fully rebuild our country's Big Three entitlement programs, and now seems to be hungrily eyeing Iran, and not a moment of consideration is ever given to the guy's motives.
--Ezra Klein
