Why did Americans elect a president who thinks this way? Because they wanted a leader different from Bill Clinton. They liked a lot of things about Clinton, but they were sick of his dishonesty in the Monica Lewinsky affair and his constant shifting in the political winds. Bush promised to say what he believed and stick to it.
On Iraq, Bush fulfilled both promises. "What I do want to share with you is my sentiment at the time," he told Russert. "There was no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein was a danger to America." Note the emphasis on subjective rather than objective reality: "my sentiment," "no doubt in my mind." When Russert asked Bush about his unpopularity abroad, Bush replied, "I'm not going to change, see? I'm not trying to accommodate. I won't change my philosophy or my point of view. I believe I owe it to the American people to say what I'm going to do and do it, and to speak as clearly as I can, try to articulate as best I can why I make decisions I make, but I'm not going to change because of polls. That's just not my nature."
As Saletan adds:
No, it isn't. Bush isn't Clinton. He doesn't change his mind for anything, whether it's polls or facts. And he always tells the truth about what's in his mind, regardless of the evidence.
That's just no way to run a railroad.
No comments:
Post a Comment