My Man George

I'd like to say it's never too late to do the right thing. But in fact, it's always too late. Nonetheless, I want to applaud George W. Bush for encouraging fuel conservation. He should have done this after 9/11. Hell, he should have done it before 9/11. But that doesn't mean he shouldn't be doing it now.

When the president starts making sense there's no telling what he might do. He might point out that people who drive SUVs are actively supporting terrorism. He could publicly state that nobody needs a Hummer. He could raise fuel efficiency standards. Give away free bicycles. Fund public transportation. Reign in urban sprawl.

When you're the president, you can get things done.

It's nice when the president behaves like a leader, rather than a poll follower. Who knows, maybe this is the taste that gets him hooked. As one political pundit told me recently over smoothies: "The height of political leadership is to create new consensus around what you believe, which is the opposite of poll-driven leadership, where you base what you tell people on what you think they want to hear."

-Stephen Elliott