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Bush Declares Mandela Dead: This is the Best Conservatives Can Do
Posted September 21, 2007 | 10:30 PM (EST)
"I heard somebody say, Where's Mandela?' Well, Mandela's dead because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas," Bush, who has a reputation for verbal faux pas, said in a press conference in Washington on Thursday.
George Bush is what conservatives produce in their lust for power and lack of concern for who wields that power. They deserve him, but we sure don't. He might or might not have produced the most corrupt administration in history, but he and his backers surely have produced the worst and most damaging presidency this country has ever seen.
Bush's own lack of curiosity and ability to see the world in grays combined with his absolute certainty that God intended for him to preside and his willingness to let pure idealogues make decisions have created this.
For conservatives, he has accomplished a tremendous amount, subtracting the abject failure of Iraq. It is quite impressive that these independent operators have had such free reign and success on tax cuts, military issues, social issues, civil rights issues, and federal court appointments. Bush has allowed it, sometimes with his understanding I am sure but more often it seems with simply his abrogation of authority to the idealogues and their great Dick Cheney.
This latest Mandela misstatement simply proves this result of his leadership style. How does he know there are no Mandelas in Iraq? How does he know that Hussein killed them? It seems just as likely that we have prevented one from arising post-Hussein because Bush has tried to force his template on that nation.
Besides, it seems that if there were any Mandela in Iraq -- someone that Bush so fervently seems to want -- he would have thrown the US out of the country. Bush does not even realize the implications of his poor attempt at symbolism. He just seeks to protect himself from his own failures by once again turning to Hussein in the same way the student always knows there's a dog somewhere who ate his homework.
Heroes are produced by victories and elevated by the victors -- George Washington, Gandhi, Mandela. Iraq has no Mandela because that nation not been allowed to be victorious; the yoke of an overewhelming power -- Hussein and his terrible reign of terror, the US and its army of liberation -- has never been removed.
Maybe Bush thinks he is Iraq's Mandela. He might be the conservatives'. He's certainly not our nation's.
Posted September 21, 2007 | 10:30 PM (EST)
"I heard somebody say, Where's Mandela?' Well, Mandela's dead because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas," Bush, who has a reputation for verbal faux pas, said in a press conference in Washington on Thursday.
George Bush is what conservatives produce in their lust for power and lack of concern for who wields that power. They deserve him, but we sure don't. He might or might not have produced the most corrupt administration in history, but he and his backers surely have produced the worst and most damaging presidency this country has ever seen.
Bush's own lack of curiosity and ability to see the world in grays combined with his absolute certainty that God intended for him to preside and his willingness to let pure idealogues make decisions have created this.
For conservatives, he has accomplished a tremendous amount, subtracting the abject failure of Iraq. It is quite impressive that these independent operators have had such free reign and success on tax cuts, military issues, social issues, civil rights issues, and federal court appointments. Bush has allowed it, sometimes with his understanding I am sure but more often it seems with simply his abrogation of authority to the idealogues and their great Dick Cheney.
This latest Mandela misstatement simply proves this result of his leadership style. How does he know there are no Mandelas in Iraq? How does he know that Hussein killed them? It seems just as likely that we have prevented one from arising post-Hussein because Bush has tried to force his template on that nation.
Besides, it seems that if there were any Mandela in Iraq -- someone that Bush so fervently seems to want -- he would have thrown the US out of the country. Bush does not even realize the implications of his poor attempt at symbolism. He just seeks to protect himself from his own failures by once again turning to Hussein in the same way the student always knows there's a dog somewhere who ate his homework.
Heroes are produced by victories and elevated by the victors -- George Washington, Gandhi, Mandela. Iraq has no Mandela because that nation not been allowed to be victorious; the yoke of an overewhelming power -- Hussein and his terrible reign of terror, the US and its army of liberation -- has never been removed.
Maybe Bush thinks he is Iraq's Mandela. He might be the conservatives'. He's certainly not our nation's.
