The president is in Australia this week and apparently spent most of yesterday trying to rally support for Prime Minister John Howard, an ideological ally of Bush. At a press conference, the president said of Howard, “I wouldn’t count the man out. As I recall, he’s kind of like me. We both have run from behind and won.”
Not surprisingly, most of the public discussions have focused on developments in Iraq — with Tony Blair having stepped down, Howard is the last major supporter of the president’s war policy — and it led to one noteworthy exchange. (thanks to reader CG for the tip)
[Bush] believes success is being achieved in Iraq and told the Deputy Prime Minister, Mark Vaile, upon arrival on Tuesday night that “we’re kicking ass”.
Now, I realize that the president isn’t exactly an impressive guy, and making a good impression overseas probably ranks fairly low on his priority list, but does he really have to embarrass us this much?
As for the “substance” (I use the word loosely) of Bush’s boast, could he be any more wrong? Yesterday, the GAO documented the fact that Iraq has successfully completed three of the administration’s 18 benchmarks. Maybe 17% results were enough for Gentlemen’s Cs to get Bush through school, but in this universe, it hardly qualifies as “kicking ass.”
I suspect Bush hasn’t thought this through very clearly, but it’s almost as if the president has decided that he needs to start really lying. Dems keep pointing to reality, and highlighting the fact that the policy isn’t working. If Bush concedes publicly that his strategy is struggling, it would be perceived as a sign of weakness. So, he swings for the fences — his Iraq policy isn’t just starting to produce results; it’s actually “kicking ass.”
In all likelihood, this is the kind of rhetoric that rallies the base, and causes clueless GOP lawmakers to pump their fist in the air. There may even be some Americans who hear about this and think, “Well, if things were really going poorly, the president wouldn’t seem so confident.”
But therein lies the rub: Bush is detached from reality. He responds to bad news by insisting that it’s good news. He sees failure as success. He’s the head of an organization that doesn’t let facts get in the way.
The aide said that guys like me were ”in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who ”believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ”That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. ”We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
The mind reels.
Update: Apparently, Bush’s strategy of offering bigger lies is catching on. Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.), who recently said the surge would likely fail, said yesterday, “The surge is working. As much as some Democrats may not like it, the surge is working…. It’s a huge success!” These people must think we’re all idiots.
