In a Multiple Choice World, Bush Fails the Test of Leadership

On the eve of Iowa, here's a thought for helping choose our next president. A simple tie-breaker for those still on the fence. Let's pick someone who can handle a pop quiz where you have to fill in the blanks.

The current occupant of the Oval Office can't even handle multiple choice tests. Look at almost any decision Bush has made while in office, and you'll see that he has consistently chosen an answer that turned out to be wrong. He was wrong on Iraq, wrong on Iran, wrong on Katrina, wrong on energy policy, wrong on global warming, wrong on the environment, wrong on children's health care, wrong on No Child Left Behind, wrong about Putin, wrong on torture, wrong on warrantless wiretapping... wrong, wrong, wrong.

Faced with the multiple choices of who to back in Pakistan, Bush tried to pick e) All of the Above -- and you see where that has left us.

Bush, the Yalie with the C-average, is only able to handle True or False questions. He always picks False and hopes he'll be right 50% of the time. But flipping a coin is no way to run a country.

Next time, let's elect someone who actually knows the right answers, and doesn't feel compelled to cheat off the Dick sitting next to him.

Comments

[glitz]

ARI; How true!! Now facing us is another serious choice. With my criteria (quite simplistic to my way of thinking), I am truly in a bind. Look at all candidates, study past records whether political or civilian, and listen to all solutions to current domestic problems (extremely difficult if not asked the right questions). Since they all deal predominately with provided soundbites, that proved to be a waste of time. Ok..something simpler, perhaps, lets invision each one of them participating in a huge meeting with all of the world's foreign leaders. Is there just one of these candidates, Democrat or Republican, that we as the American public can accept with pride as the leader of the United States of America?? OOPs...I don't think so.

[darker]

Bush allowed a free-for-all for his NANNY STATE FOR THE RICH and corporate welfare queens.

Bush is not about leadership. His entourage simply "open the gates" and let shit happen.

Good shit for them in terms of tons of tax dollars into their pockets $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
and bad shit for middle-income Americans who are not part of the WEFARE STATE FOR THE RICH.

[JayWilliams]

The headline says that Bush fails...leadership. This is untrue. Very untrue. I despise Bush, but I do so largely because he is a very effective leader. You make the point. Bush has a clear position on war, on corporate values, on divine rectitude...on leading us back to the "glorious" days before the Enlightenment. A leader is someone who...leads...and succeeds in what he wants to accomplish. In this sense, Bush is supernatural. The fact that he continues to have his way---in spite of how wrongheaded he is---further demonstrates how awesome he is as a leader! Compare congress. All congress can do is whine while rubber stamping Bush's agenda.

[3rdCitizen]

The Republicans (with the help of the MSM) have been very effective at playing on the anti-intellectual bias of a large part of their base. Using the Roveian tactic of attacking an opponent's strengths, they turned Gore and then Kerry's obvious intellectual superiority vs. W. Bush into some kind of character flaw: Elitist! Arrogant! Pretentious! Able to see more than one side of an issue!
So, now we have a Republican party where the presidential candidates feel they have to publicly express doubt over the theory of evolution and discuss policy positions in the most simplistic terms possible.
On the other hand, this is also the party of such inhumane, end-justifies-the-means, Dr. Stangelove-esque brainiacs as papa Kissinger and his misbegotten neo-con progeny.
Apparently, the ideal Republican presidential candidate is a folksy buffoon on the outside and a willing pawn of the right-wing think tanks at his morally mushy center.

[SaintSatinStain]

Are we too late to control the economic power in this country? Are we too late to restore the Constitution? Both Democrats and Republicans share the disease, save one House member who can't win his party's nomination and one Senator who can't win the election. You believe wrongly that this started several years before last Bush administration; no, it began during the Franklin Roosevelt administration. The economic power mongers began then the plan to reverse Roosevelt's political, social, and economic policies; their sons and daughters, and economic descendants, began the long plan to reverse the decline in their power. Individual robber barons may have died, their descendants continued the work to regain the power they lost and more. They have been successful. And too many of the American electorate are still ignorant and stupid. Folk who write here are preaching to the choir. We need to make the attempt to talk to the others; the ones who elected him twice. Pooh, on the argument that the election was stolen. You can't steal an election if it aint close. We have to try to get support for a candidate who will follow the Constitution. There are several Democrats and one Republican. I don't believe beginning with Bush's second election that it is possible to reverse this mess.
Can we reverse what has happened peacefully now? America has become fascist. The people still reelect the folks responsible. I am old and grew up through the peaceful civil rights and anti-Vietnam war eras; I am unsuited for the next strugge. But I don't believe anymore that we can change the present situation peacefully. Unfortunately I am imbued with pacific tendencies. It may, probably actually, take extreme violence. The robber barons control the House, Senate, Executive, Judiciary, most state houses, newspapers, television, radio, and are moving on the internet. The usual ways are closed. We have been stupid too long and the train has gone.

[Geauterre]

The last two hundred years has shown that our political system is for sale to the highest bidder. Of course, I can only hope that an Obama, an Edwards or a Paul might change it, where hopefully the coming election would show if that is possible.

[Garvagh]

Bush was the perfect stooge-in-waiting, upon his election in 2000. Cheney seems to have gone off the rails in the wake of the attack on the World Trade Center, but it is possible this is just a pose adopted to conceal the real agenda of militarizing the US as part of an intentional subverting of the Republic. Certainly, Bush even now has virtually no understanding of the history and cultures of the Middle East.

[Janelynne]

Well it is true that we let an idiot get elected. But what have we learned? Have we learned how the system really works and how to cut through the corruption, lies, dirty tricks, and propaganda? I am not sure we comprehend how much power the conservative machines have and how capable they are to shape our selection? Watch NBC, ie GE. What are they saying and how are they saying it? What is the NYTimes saying? What Democrat is Fox lifting? Who is CNN pushing? This election is not about ideology, it is about how money and power are held on to.

[johannesrolf]

you are mistaken. the protections offered by the constitution are not for US citizens only. they are for everyone.

[blithespirit]

Fall 2000. I was browsing at Book Soup in West Hollywood. A book was on display near the cash register. Written by Paul Begala, "Is Our Children Learning?" is a short, succinct overview of Bush's brief stint in the Air Texas National Guard, his "career" as a businessman, and his Governorship of Texas. I had already read and re-read it, and the idea of a man with the brain the size of a rabbit dropping in the Oval Office filled me with horror! "Never happen" I thought. "No one in their right minds would elect that moronic twit!"
An elderly British gentleman standing next to me saw the book and made a condescending remark about Bush's IQ.
I agreed, but said I wasn't worried as Bush was too stupid to be President.
Peering at me through his spectacles, he said loudly "My dear young lady, I'm afraid he WILL be President. It matters not a whit if he's an idiot!"
I asked him why he thought that. Surely if enough people read about Bush's appalling record as Gov. of Texas, they wouldn't dream of voting for him. Gravely, he shook his head.
"Dear girl, he will be President because the American people are STUPID! They would rather vote for a good ol' boy than an intellectual scholar. GORE makes them feel dumb by comparison. When they look at Bush, they think 'He's just folks, like me".
His voice carried throughout the store, and I looked around warily. I fully expected a contingent of testy Americans to tell the nosy old Brit to mind his own business. No one said anything. This was liberal West Hollywood, and we were in a bookstore, surrounded by people who read. Not the sports page, not TV Guide, not the tabloids. Books. They probably agreed with him.
Sadly, it appears he was right.

[waiguoren]

Saw an old SNL bit in which Bush 41 ( the real one )sat in a chair, looked into the camera, and said words to this effect:

" The ask me if I resent being made fun of on SNL time after time. Well, yes I do. But I won't do anything about that now. It would be unseemly.
But -- I'll get my revenge. One of these days -- I'll get my revenge."

Spoo-key...

[fullkelly]

In the OLD MARINE CORPS and I hope the one we now have they had the esprit de corps. You could not give an order unless you could take an order. You could not lead unless you could be led. A leader would never ask anyone to do what he as a leader would not do himself.

The Old Corps Had a Motto, It was SEMPER FIDELIS, meaning "Always Faithful", Faithful to your Fellow Marines, meaning no one would ever be left behind to fend for themselves in the face of the enemy. There of course was the flip side of that motto that was simply stated, "Semper Fi", meaning "Fuck You I've Got Mine" and you are on your on. GW Bush chose the latter. the TXNG comes to mind - IE, Texas Air National Guard, which was only a draft dodgers haven in the 1960s and 1970s during the Viet Nam war. He ewould not do what he has demanded of our Armed Forces today. He could not make it in the Marine Corps. He didn't.

[benalbanach]

Oh It's not that he (Bush) doesn't know the answers. He just doesn't like them. Ask this 'Christian' about "Thou shall not kill" for instance.

[FOXYLADY]

I WONDER HOW BUSH WILL MAKE OUT ON HIS "WORLD TOUR" THIS YEAR? IT SEEMS HE'S MAKING UP FOR LOST TIME VISITING SO MANY TROUBLE SPOTS..I WONDER WHY "NOW"? WHAT A WASTE OF OUR TAX DOLLARS..FUEL FOR AIRFORCE I, $$$ FOR THE FOOLS SECURITY AND LET'S NOT FORGET ALL THE AMERICAN DOLLARS THAT WILL BE SPENT FROM THAT SENT TO ALL THESE COUNTRIES VISITED FOR HIS SECURITY IN THOSE COUNTRIES....HE WILL ONLY MAKE MORE TROUBLE WITH HIS DUMB MOUTH AND SMIRKING AND SNEERING FACES......DAMN HIM!!

[willymack]

Geez, it only took seven years for the author of this article to conclude that bush is a loser. I knew it when he lost the 2000 election, and was shoved down our throats by Poppy's boys. Since nobody had the guts to do anything about that crime, they did it again in 2004, and it will almost certainly be attempted again, in 2008. Instead of rotting in prison where he belongs, he's been our worst nightmare, and will probably, to our everlasting shame, NEVER be brought to justice for his manifold crimes.