Video: Conservative elders want new ideas in Bush's brain

Last night on the syndicated weekend program the Chris Matthews Show, a roundtable of journalists discussed the interesting world of Bush's brain.  Even if Democrats wrestle control of the House and Senate away from the Republicans, they will still have a difficult time altering Bush's self-implied notion that he has a permanent mandate because he is President.  This was a really good discussion about some of Bush's most alarming personal traits:

Click to watch video clip << (YouTube)

---- Partial Transcript ----

CYNTHIA TUCKER: "What I also think is critical about Bush is his self confidence.  He never waivers.  He never thinks he's wrong.  So even if he loses -- Republicans lose the House -- they're still going to have to wrest control from him.  He still believes he's absolutely right about Iraq.  He intends to stay.  If he had more troops, he would probably send them.  I don't think there are any more..."

This next partial transcript is really important, and actually sad.  Make sure you read all of it.  As we all know, the White House is a very close-knit community.  They don't let outside people influence the President.  At the same time, they are being arrogantly stubborn about Iraq, and plan to drive this mission into the ground if they have to as long as it means keeping troops there.  So what old school conservative outsiders are trying to do is convince Bush to bring in someone, say Jim Baker, who Bush trusts, in order to get inside Bush's head to convince him to end the war:

MATTHEWS: "Jim Baker has this mandate -- the former Secretary of State for Bush Senior -- a mandate to try to find some sort of a solution to the Iraq quagmire, which is developing.  In almost just a matter of Clark Clifford coming into the LBJ Administration in the late days, do you have a sense that he might -- I know he's troubling to some of the new crowd around the new Bush -- do you think they might be on the verge of using him?..."

DAVID BROOKS: "Baker, Jim Baker is part of this bipartisan..group of elders who are going to try to come up with an Iraq policy.  And the supposition among many people is that they are part of the exit strategy."

When you have an individual whose brain is so certain about what he is doing that he won't listen to anyone else, and when you need to sneak certain old friends (like Jim Baker) in there to put new ideas into that individual's head that will hopefully change his mind, that individual is really not fit to be leading the country, not to mention manage a war.
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Other sites blogging about this issue: Alternate Brain, MLM Liberal, Media Matters, Donkey Path, The Bush Diaries, Bring it On!, Huffington Post, The Moderate Voice, Rationally Speaking, Newsvine, Raw Story, Slog, Democratic Underground, The Onion.

Comments

[Alfred]

Such traits as those described above are sometimes valuable in a leader. When the leader is thoughtful and correct, specifically. The President has proven to be neither one consistently enough, making such firmness distressing.