Reply #34: I think his advisers have been keeping him pumped [View All]

[Julien Sorel]

up with a distorted picture of reality vis a vis his standing with the American public.

I also think the weight of the lies he's spinning over Iraq is taking a huge toll on him psychologically. We're there because he got us there, tens of thousands have died, over a thousand of them Americans, and there's no easy way to get out -- and this is a guy whose entire life has been about the easy way. He might be able to hold his fantasyland vision of Iraq together long enough to get through the election, but eventually reality is going to hit, and when it does, he's going to be crushed. History is going to shit all over his presidency, entirely because of Iraq. If we stay, bloodshed. If we leave, bloodshed. And for what? That's the picture he faces, no matter what he tells the public, and it's got to have an impact on him knowing it. He's only going to deteriorate.

Lyndon Johnson was twice the man Bush is, and Vietnam destroyed him as a person. Bush lacks most of Johnson's conscience, but he makes up for that with conceit -- and that conceit has to be telling him Iraq is going to be a blacker stain on him than Vietnam was on Johnson. Johnson had, after all, the Civil Rights Act and the Great Society as gigantic accomplishments. Bush has, by way of comparison, a few moments running around New York City with a bullhorn talking tough.