Video: Sullivan: Bush has "strong denial mechanisms"

On the syndicated weekend program the Chris Matthews Show, right-of-center columnist Andrew Sullivan explained why Bush is so frustrated with the ongoing foreign policy predicament.  (Hint: he is realizing there is a gray area -- not just black and white.):

Click to watch video clip

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SULLIVAN: "People like Bush have fantastically strong denial mechanisms.  That's how he's survived his entire life."

MATTHEWS: "What do you mean?"

SULLIVAN: "It means he can deny the reality in front of him.  It means he's, especially as a recovering alcoholic, he's --"

(Laughter)

SULLIVAN: "Don't laugh.  I think this is integral to his psyche.  (He) has a very clear idea of black and white and cannot tolerate the gray.  And what's happened in the last year or so, the gray has seeped in, he doesn't know how to cope, and the denial is collapsing, and he has nowhere to go."

I don't have a psychology major, so I don't know the characteristics of recovering alcoholics.  I am sure that some recovering alcoholics have different characteristics than others.  But if this is the case with Bush and he can't handle any gray area, then we should be in for a wild ride these next two years, especially with all that is going on in the Middle East.  As I have written in the past, there is no foreign policy realism with Bush.  It's all idealism.  As a result, we're dividing our friends and uniting our enemies.  That is not a sound foreign policy.

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