Who’s out of touch with reality?

January 4, 2007

At yesterday’s White House press briefing, a reporter asked Tony Snow a question that I’ve been anxious to hear for quite a while: “[T]he President has been determined, he’s been resolved, and nobody questions that, but does he get it? I mean, is he fundamentally out of touch with what the reality is on the ground in Iraq?”

The answer was a classic. (TP has the video)

“No, I think what happens is, we may be out of touch with reality because we sit around and we look at fractional pictures on the screen. This is a President who gets exhaustive briefings on a daily basis about the situation. He knows more than anybody in this room about what’s going on there. And as Commander-in-Chief, he also has solemn and important obligations to deal with the situation properly, as the Commander-in-Chief, and as somebody who is committed to a way forward that’s going to create the independent and free and democratic Iraq.

“So the President does get it.”

Ideally, this might make some sense. Of course a president is going to receive more information than the public and the media. A president receives highly classified briefings to which no one else is privy. Snow is right to argue that the scope of the information a president receives is massive.

The problem, though, is that this president is unique.

Bush may receive extensive and informative briefings, for example, but there’s no reason to believe he’s engaged by what he hears. The president received a pretty interested briefing in August 2001 about Osama bin Laden and a potential attack on the U.S., prompting Bush to tell his briefer, “All right. You’ve covered your ass, now.”

For that matter, for a guy who “knows more than anybody in this room about what’s going on there,” he has a funny way of showing it.

* As recently as October, Bush insisted that we’re “absolutely” winning in Iraq.

* Bush likes to characterize himself as a modern-day Truman.

* As recently as last month, Bush contradicted his own intelligence sources to misidentify the cause for sectarian violence in Iraq.

And yet, for Tony Snow, Americans are “out of touch with reality.”

The mind reels.

Everything that Boy George II knows is filtered through so many layers of bullshit that it’s amazing he still remembers what state to fly to for vacations.

Snow is suggesting that getting daily briefings means that BG2 “gets it”? Considering that his job is to bullshit the White House Press Corps, you’d think he’d know how groundless his assertion is.

  • If he’s so “in touch” with what’s happening in Iraq, why does he ignore the recommendations of the Joint Chiefs, the Generals on the ground, and even the troops?

    Also, there’s something else I’ve been wondering: How much power does he have as Commander in Chief? Can he legally order another 20,000 troops to Iraq? I thought Congress had to authorize such things.

    Maybe I should’ve paid more attention to School House Rock …

  • “Can he legally order another 20,000 troops to Iraq?” – Unholy Moses

    Yes.

    The detailed conduct of a war is the responsibility of the Commander in Chief and adding 20,000 or 200,000 more troops doesn’t change that. As long as Congress is going along with the Iraq Occupation in any degree they really have no say in how many troops go in there.

    Besides, there is no moral difference between the 170,000 troops and 100,000 contractors in Iraq now and 20,000 more. That is a weird distinction that I just do not get.

    Let’s not let the fact that Boy George II is a f**king moron change the necessary balance of power between the legislative and executive branch.

  • It’s very clear to everybody (including Snowjob I suspect) that Bush knows nothing about anything important, nor does have the kind of curiosity which would lead average people to inquire about things he’s in a unique position to learn about.

    There’s also a serious question whether his history of as-yet-untreated alcohol and drug abuse might have damaged his brain to such an extent that, even were he to be force-fed the information, he’d be able to process it (remember the “bump” under his coat during the debates?). His “rebirth in Christ”, far from adding a dimension to his experience of the real world, actually adds to his illusions.

    He’s also living in what every observer of any political or philosophical stripe regards as the most pampered, isolated office in the world, surrounded by sycophants seeking favors or power. Previous presidents (FDR, HST, LBJ) went out of their way to escape such “protection”. All George Bush has done to escape (that they’ll talk about anyway) is fall off his couch, or fall off his segway, or run over people with his bike. Otherwise, he’s all programming, a lot of it through the Bush Crime Family.

    He’s never worked for a living or paid for anything or planned his future or served in the military (zipping around in out-of-service jets at taxpayer expense doesn’t count) or earned a grade (legacies don’t count). How out-of-touch with reality can anyone be?

  • #2 – Lance – Besides, there is no moral difference between the 170,000 troops and 100,000 contractors in Iraq now and 20,000 more. That is a weird distinction that I just do not get.

    I agree, if someone is morally outraged at escalation, but is fine with keeping existing troops there indefinitely, then yes that is something I do not get either. However, I think the majority’s alternative argument against escalation is not status quo, but withdrawal of all troops. So the moral outrage is towards the idea of ignoring calls for withdrawal and to top it off replacing it with calls for escalation.

  • Yup that’s reality. A F-ing Powerpoint chart is so much more realistic.

    Yeah, sounds so familiar. Robert S. McNamara and LBJ got wonderful charts and numbers from the boys at the Five Sided Squirrel Cage on the Potomac. It was so wonderful that they were shocked when the Tet Offensive came a knocking…

    The higher ups got such wonderful briefings that soon after Tet Strange left for the World Bank and LBJ did not run for President and Westy Westmoreland was kicked upstairs to become Army CoS.

  • What Ed Stephan said. When Bush was being briefed about the impending Katrina disaster, he didn’t ask a single question!

    http://www.slate.com/id/2137268/

    When the members of the Iraq Study Group met with President Bush, after they presented their findings Bush asked no questions.

    NONE.

    http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/3798

    This is the guy who said “I thought they were all muslims” after someone described to him the OBVIOUS Sunni/Shiite divide in Iraq (just weeks before the invasion).

    This is the guy who refused to consult with his own FATHER about the Iraq invasion, an evil man, but one who knows a thing or two about the middle east. Bush Jr said later this was because “I am much better informed than he could possibly be”.

    How fucking clueless can you get?

    The man doesn’t want to know what reality is, because all those liberal-biased facts just muck up his petulant religious fantasies.

    two quotes:

    “Ignorance is the mother of devotion.”
    – Robert Burton

    “Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile!”
    – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

  • “the scope of the information a president receives is massive”

    This is the unfounded pretense, which the existence of a giant national security and “intelligence” apparatus permits.

    And, it is wrong. There really are not very many important “secrets” — and even fewer that would be of a nature, which would inform a President.

    The simple fact is that a President has 24 hours in his day, just like I do. And, if he doesn’t have the time, inclination or deep intellectual preparation to absorb huge quantities of information — well, he doesn’t.

    The President’s daily briefings consist, in large part, of a Reader’s Digest version of the New York Times and Washington Post. That’s the truth. So, he probably gets less, not more information, than a semi-retired blogger with time on his hands.

    This is the President, whose staff had to make up a DVD of CNN reports on Katrina. And, you are willing to let Tony Snow snow us that Bush is well-informed on Iraq?

  • No, no, CB–Snow didn’t say Dear Leader gets ” massive”, “extensive” or “informative” briefings as you state. Snow says he gets “exhaustive” briefings and we all know how easily the pResident gets exhausted.

  • Commander Codpiece may have information presented to him, but Cheney can close the Regal Moron’s eyes & ears to any fact. That’s what a good puppetter can do, and Cheney’s arm has been shoulder deep up the Deciderer’s ass since before the 2000 election.

  • Justin A. Frank, M.D.: A sociopath is just what you said — a person who can be very charming, but psychologically is so massively defended against experiencing guilt that he cannot feel empathy. If you don’t feel guilt, you can’t empathize, because you never can feel concern about having hurt somebody else, or anybody else suffering. Guilt reins in destructive behavior. But if you don’t have any guilt, you don’t have to feel any anxiety or anything that will hold you back in terms of being destructive or being hurtful. And that leads you to being unable to feel empathy, because empathy actually threatens your safety.

    From an interview with Justin A. Frank, M.D., Author of “Bush on the Couch”

  • And yet, for Tony Snow, Americans are “out of touch with reality.”

    Well ya see, CB, we’re talking about different realities. There is the reality most of us see and there is BushBrat Reality (TM).

    Therefore, when Bush says “We’re absulutley winnin’ in Eyerack,” he believes it to be true. From where he stands (on the edge of the firey abyss one hopes) he can’t understand why we keep carping about the so-called death and destruction because he’s focused on the school murals.

    tAiO

    P.S. Speaking of the surgers (#2 & #3), I heard, or though I heard mention of 9,000 soldiers on the radio this morning. Can someone confirm/correct?

  • Lance (# 1) —

    You’re right about the layers of filters, and I think Bush himself acts as the final filter. I don’t think he welcomes information and advice. He simply does what his negligible brain and out-sized ego decides. (Basing an important decision on “gut feeling” is proof of avoidance of working and thinking.)

    On the other hand, I think he responds to *orders.* He’s now in a position to reject orders, but I think there are a few people (like Cheney and Rove) he fears and obeys. In his past, I suspect he lived life as the prodigal son, becoming the whining wimp when he screwed up and needed someone to extract him from a dung pile of his own creation.

  • Just because Goerge Bush is a professional meeting attender doesn’t mean he comprehends what he’s hearing. Others have hit on the salient points of the argument against Bush really getting a clear picture: he’s in a bubble sourrounded by yes-men who understand opposing the president is viewed as disloyal, no one wants to tell the president bad news, Bush never asks questions to further divine the truth meaning no matter what is said he’s won’t change his preconceived notions and finally that truly comprehending an isue means you respond appropriately — something Bush just doesn’t do and is well demonstrated by his calls for escalation.

    To demonstrate that Snow doesn’t get it, the reporter essentially asked a rhetorical question. The reporter knew the real truth and was simply looking for a White House reaction that confirmed what is known. What the transcript doesn’t illustrate is the incredulity of the questioner.

  • I think this is the most overlooked fact about this man. He has never been treated or probably even been assessed for substance abuse and the possible damage that abuse did to his brain. He has used religion as a bandaid for his rather serious psychological issues and his family’s money and influence to get what he wanted. You can blame Bush, and that’s fine, but we also have to blame the American electorate and the American press for not asking some rather obvious questions. Apparently, in American politics, it is the golden rule: the guy with the gold rules.

  • Oops: I forgot Ed Stephan’s comment in the previous post:
    There’s also a serious question whether his history of as-yet-untreated alcohol and drug abuse might have damaged his brain to such an extent that, even were he to be force-fed the information, he’d be able to process it (remember the “bump” under his coat during the debates?). His “rebirth in Christ”, far from adding a dimension to his experience of the real world, actually adds to his illusions

    I think this is the most overlooked fact about this man. He has never been treated or probably even been assessed for substance abuse and the possible damage that abuse did to his brain. He has used religion as a bandaid for his rather serious psychological issues and his family’s money and influence to get what he wanted. You can blame Bush, and that’s fine, but we also have to blame the American electorate and the American press for not asking some rather obvious questions. Apparently, in American politics, it is the golden rule: the guy with the gold rules.

    That makes more sense.

  • When you put Snowboy’s statement “.. He knows more than anybody in this room about what’s going on there. And as Commander-in-Chief, he also has solemn and important obligations to deal with the situation properly, as the Commander-in-Chief, ..” alongside (from the previous item) “.. his signing statement [that] said he’d ignore the privacy provisions under “exigent circumstances.” That could refer to an imminent danger, or it could refer to “a longstanding state of emergency.”, does anyone else feel a cold shiver of foreboding creep up their spine?

    Trying to disentangle this cunning oaf’s bamboozling trickery suddenly reveals a most disconcerting scenario: He, the Kid, who ‘knows more than anybody … about what’s going on’, as ‘Commander-in-Chief’ could easily proclaim the necessary “exigent circumstances” leading to “a longstanding state of emergency” that nobody would have the power or authority to contradict or contravene because he, the Kid, is ‘Commander-in-Chief’ and ‘knows more than anybody … about what’s going on’.

    Just tell me I’m wrong and that I’m missing something…

  • John Edwards knows a lot about poverty, after all, he’s helped throw a lot of people into it with:

    – his co-sponsorship of H-1b visas,

    – his support for illegal aliens,

    – his vote for MFN-China

    but what about stuff like iraq war and the patriot act?

    well, he voted for them too,

    About the only thing you can say for Edwards is, he spent so much time running for president that he didnt have time to do more damage as senator

    You’ve got to ask yourself – ‘what did he do, with the power he had, when he had it?

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