(Video) No matter what happens, Bush still believes he's right

All of us have strong convictions about certain things -- but only to a point.  Sometimes people that have such set opinions are difficult to convince that they are wrong, regardless of how wrong they might be.  Conservative author Andrew Sullivan last night warned just how isolated the President really is.  Even so, he is not budging on Iraq, regardless of the fact that thousands more people are dead because he chose to right a war that did not need to be fought.

SULLIVAN: And Bush, I think psychologically, he just believes he's right.  He thinks that, in his fundamentalist psyche, that his motives are pure, that the war is the right thing...

...And I think the President had a born-again moment on 9/11, politically.  He thinks as long as he's fighting evil, anybody who criticizes him is on the side of evil.

You might all disagree with me on this next idea.  But I think Andrew Sullivan brought up an interesting point about how the Administration has no reason at all to care what the public thinks because the current Vice President is not running in 2008.  In most second terms, the issue of Executive power comes up.  If Cheney was thinking about the presidency in 2008, he would be warned by political advisers to prevent Bush from over-stepping his reach since it might create a public backlash in 2008.  Usually, there is no such thing as a lame duck presidency because most second term administrations try to help the sitting vice president win the presidency in the next election.

This White House is totally different.  They have no reason to think twice before consolidating power.  It's worse than Nixon.  Even some in Nixon's staff looked ahead to how Gerald Ford and the 1970s Republican Party might be affected if Richard Nixon fought it out until the bitter end.  This time, there is no individual in the White House that can tell the President "no."  That is the scary part.

Let this be a lesson to both parties.  If your party's nominee names a running-mate that has no intention of running eight years later, then your party will have no leverage over the presidency.  No matter what the Republican Party tries to do, they will not be able to affect this White House in any way until the very end.  Bush and Cheney are not Republicans anymore.  They are off on their own, and no Republican lawmaker can change that.

Comments

[granny]

Both editor Todd and Andrew Sullivan are putting the real cards on the table in this one, I think.

I recommend the book :" don't think of an elephant!", by George Lakoff for a chilling look at what drives this sense of singular self-righteousness, that Bush, and this administration generally, displays.

Add that to Todd's point : What do they have to care, anyway? And we've got a real problem!