Another press conference, another line of reasoning that boggles the mind, except perhaps for the mind that sorted out the boggle reasoning to begin with.
Besides amending his troop level deliberations from "I listen to the Generals," to "I listen to the Generals as long as they say what I want them to say," the most egregious bovine excrement came when President Bush was asked how it was that he could say "Absolutely, we're winning" two months ago and then make the subtle metamorphous to "we aren't winning" today.
What he answered must have provided America's TV repairmen a week's worth of work dislodging chairs from television screens.
"The first comment," he said, "was said in the spirit of 'I believe we're going to win." See, it's not his words. It's the gusto of his words that holds the truth. It's not what he says, but how exuberant he is when he says them.
So "believing we're going to win" can mean "we are winning" if you say it with verve.
You just knew he was tap dancing on the head of the hundreds of thousands who've died from his mistakes (notice Freepers, I didn't say "lies"). He said "we were winning" and he knew we weren't (that's
the lie).
Okay. That might have placed some new HD's in jeopardy but the actual lifting of the chair and tossing it moment came when he said that if he didn't think we were winning he wouldn't have our troops in Iraq.
I prayed for a followup...
"Then Mr. President, if we're not winning in Iraq, doesn't that mean that you think our troops shouldn't be there?"
Unfortunately, David Gregory and Helen Thomas were not able to get in any questions.
Perhaps I didn't understand the spirit of "we're not winning in Iraq?" That with a proper grasp of the vivacity of the words, I would know that :we are not winning in Iraq" means the President believes "we ARE winning in Iraq?
Nevertheless, I'm sure the President would have answered my followup with one of his famous "if I talk long enough perhaps people won't notice I'm not answering that question" answers.
Two more years.
Anyone know a good TV repairmen?
Steve Young is the author of "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful" and his column can be found every Sunday in the L.A. Daily News Opinion page.