Wishful Thinking

Time magazine's Joe Klein writes an Iraq war speech he wishes Bush would give-

What Bush Should Have Said:
An alternative speech for a president seeking support on Iraq

It's actually a pretty good speech, very humble and forward-thinking. I don't agree with all of it (I'm not convinced sending 30,000 more troops to Baghdad at this point will do more than delay the inevitable), but it'd be a decent start overall for a new direction. Of course, the reality is that President Bush will sooner convert to Islam than deliver this speech.

Part of the problem in the past few years is that the centrists like Mr. Klein have been waiting for an inevitable course correction from the President (either foreign or domestic) and keep giving him the benefit of the doubt in general. A great example of this is NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman's repeated assurances every so often that if we just give the war 'six more months' it will work out (note: Mr. Friedman, after years of this, has finally conceded defeat on the issue). Time and time again they are proved naive.

George W. Bush isn't a good President who just took a bad turn somewhere along the way... He is a completely bad President, period- a man completely intellectually uncurious, obsessed with winning political battles over the real ones, incapable of admitting a mistake, and wholly dependent on/devoted to the ideologues who shaped his policies.

The idea that President Bush would ever admit a) that many post-9/11 decisions were made in anger and impatience, b) that his 'freedom agenda' in the Middle East was an inevitable failure and that a new path is needed, c) that the Iraq war was unnecessary because the U.N. sanctions/inspections had worked, d) that he should raise gas taxes to get serious on ending foreign oil dependence, or e) that he should meet with President Ahmadinejad is laughable. This is a man who will deny ever linking Saddam to 9/11 while using 9/11 to justify toppling Saddam in the same sentence. Only the influence of a higher power- be it God or Dick Cheney- could ever shift the beliefs he clings to.

The next 2+ years will go better if people stop passively waiting for the President to be something he's not.

[PS- Speaking of Tom Friedman, this quote of his Sullivan links to hits the nail on the head.]