Great Blumenthal Piece On Bush

Sidney Blumenthal's recent Salon piece is definitely worth reading. He starts out by giving us this dead-on summary of the whole General Petraeus deal:

After Bush pretended to deliberate over whether he would agree to his own policy as presented by his general in well-rehearsed performances before Congress -- "President Bush Accepts Recommendations" read a headline on the White House Web site -- he established an ideal division of responsibility. Bush could claim credit for the "Return on Success," whenever that might be, while Petraeus would be charged with whatever might go wrong.

Arguing that Bush has entered "a phase of decadent perversity," Blumenthal summarizes the president's current state of mind this way:

In his unstoppable commentary about himself, Bush has become as certain of his exalted place in history as he is of his policy's rightness. He projects his image into the future, willing his enshrinement as a great president. History has become a magical incantation for him, a kind of prayerful refuge where he is safe from having to think in the present. For Bush, history is supernatural, a deus ex machina, nothing less than a kind of divine intervention enabling him to enter presidential Valhalla. Through his fantasy about history as afterlife -- the stairway to paradise -- he rationalizes his current course.

I almost felt sorry for Bush as I was reading Blumenthal's article. But that feeling faded away as Blumenthal revealed just how much of a jerk Bush really is, doing so simply by using statements that Bush himself made to Robert Draper, his authorized biographer:

Draper's unusual access enabled him to collect valuable anecdotes as well as to put a microphone in front of a president who, when interrupted by an aide, told him not to worry because the interview was "worthless."

Bush's idiocy was in full view during Draper's interview. I laughed out loud when I read that Bush actually said this about his dad: "He knows as an ex-president, he doesn't have nearly the amount of knowledge I've got on current things." That's hysterical, particularly when you consider that this is the same guy whose eyes glazed over when Paul O'Neill, Bush's former Treasury Secretary, tried to explain some important treasury-connected matters to the president.

And I found this part of Blumenthal's article very interesting:

Those around him have learned how to manipulate him through the art of flattery. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld played Bush like a Stradivarius, exploiting his grandiosity. "Rumsfeld would later tell his lieutenants that if you wanted the president's support for an initiative, it was always best to frame it as a 'Big New Thing.'" Other aides played on Bush's self-conception as "the Decider." "To sell him on an idea," writes Draper, "aides were now learning, the best approach was to tell the president, This is going to be a really tough decision." But flattery always requires deference. Every morning, Josh Bolten, the chief of staff, greets Bush with the same words: "Thank you for the privilege of serving today."

Something tells me that the next 16 months just might be the longest 16 months in American history. God help us all.