The Bush in the Bubble

[atommom]

I once visited the "map room" of Philip II, King of Spain, and ruler of the (more or less known) world in the second half of the 16th century. Wandering this large chamber filled with maps from Philip's time in his grim, crusader palace-monastery, El Escorial, I found myself trying to imagine how he might have conceived of the New World his soldiers had claimed for him. Somewhere, thousands of miles beyond his sight, beyond what could possibly be imaginable in a 16th century Spanish castle, untold numbers of the Indian inhabitants of his New World realms were dying the grimmest of deaths - and this, not so long after Catholic thinkers had been arguing over whether such beings even had souls capable of conversion from heathenism. Mine was, of course, an impossible exercise, but the rulership of that one man, of that one mind locked within those stone walls and his limited universe, must even then have been an exercise in fiction, no matter that the results were painfully real.

Perhaps in a way all rulership has to be a kind of fiction. The difference is that Philip's equivalent today, the head of the globe's "lone superpower", is at the center of a vast machine for the creation of fiction, a kind of ever-growing assembly line for its production. I suppose the truth is that the human ego - whether that of the man who "runs" America (and desires to run much of the world) or the chief executive officer of any globe-spanning transnational corporation - only has so much expandability. Even a single megalomanic ego, an ego stretched to the limits, would have no way of taking in, no less governing, such a world. Not really. Perhaps this is why, increasingly, the president of the United States has himself become a kind of fiction.

Though we elect a single being to govern us, who, in a never-ending political campaign, pretends to hold certain beliefs and policies sacrosanct, and though a man named George W Bush now inhabits the White House, sleeps in a bed there, watches TV there, entertains foreign dignitaries or Republican funders there, and does myriad other things, including traveling the globe and nervously driving a 1956 vintage Volga beside Vladimir Putin for the cameras in Moscow, "he" and "his" acts and policies are, in fact, a curious creation.

Of course, we read in the paper or hear on TV every day that the president does endless newsworthy things. Just the other day, for instance, there was a little note at the bottom of the front page of my hometown paper announcing that "Bush Gives a Lecture to Putin". The piece inside, "Bush Tells Putin Not to Interfere With Democracy in Former Soviet Republics" by Times White House reporter Elisabeth Bumiller, began: "President Bush used the 60th anniversary of Nazi Germany's defeat to warn President Vladimir V Putin of Russia on Saturday that 'no good purpose is served by stirring up fears and exploiting old rivalries' in the former Soviet republics on his borders." Just as Bumiller's piece the day before had begun: "President Bush stepped into the middle of an escalating feud between Russia and the Baltic nations on Friday night as he arrived here in the capital of Latvia at the start of a five-day trip to Europe." Just as, in fact, a thousand other pieces in papers or on radio and TV news programs would begin almost any day of the year.

The president "does" this or that. It is, I suspect, a strangely comforting thought. Only the other night, I spent a couple of minutes listening to two experts discuss "the president's" strategy in his meetings with Putin on Charlie Rose. Would he rebuke the Russian president in their private meeting - and do so in a serious way - for his undemocratic rule? Would he follow the State Department "points" prepared for him, or would he just say a word or two about democracy and move on? And either way, would the meeting between the two men be a "success" as both their PR staffs promptly rushed to announce? And yet George Bush's "rebuke" of Putin was, as we all also know, written by someone else. Essentially, while George spends his life enacting his presidency, he just about never speaks his own, unadulterated words. To shape them, after all, he has Karl Rove, a bevy of pollsters, and a staff of advisers, speechwriters, spinners, and quipsters hired to do the job.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GE14Aa01.html

[LibDemAlways]

1. When the pundits talk about "the President"

they are talking about President Cheney. The fool who occupies the WH is the front man. Sort of like wandering onto the car lot and being met by the glad-handing salesman who later passes you off to the barracuda in the back room.

I'd be willing to bet big money that the chimp has nothing to say to Pooty-Poot. After the photo op the chimp is escorted out and Cheney either emerges from the shadows or is on the other end of the telephone. One reason we hardly ever see him. He's too busy carrying out the evil intentions of the BFEE while the dumbshit smiles for the cameras.

[Demit]

2. Good analysis, enjoyable reading. Hopefully this fiction that we are all

forced to live in is such an egregious example of it that it will prove to be the fin de siecle. It absolutely cannot get any more unbelievable, surely, than this.

BTW, I had thought that Reagan, the prototype for this present fictional presidency, had actually come up with something himself for once (that line about hard work not killing anybody...why take the chance"). It did sound like him. Now I learn that even this was the brilliance of his ghostwriter. It so figures. This man that the Repugs want to annoint as the greatest president of the 20th century. Pathological liars, all of them.

[Technowitch]

3. I had an epiphany moment the other day, regarding Mr. Bush

It was in the aftermath of that incident with the student pilot and the violation of Capitol airspace.

Some estimates put the number of people evacuated at 30,000. Congress was evacuated, as was Cheney, Mrs. Bush, and so on.

Meanwhile, the so-called President was off riding his bike. And wasn't even informed of the incident until it was over.

I'd had my doubts before, particularly given the panicked flight to Nebraska back on 9/11. But this was the moment when I felt it was 100% confirmed that he's really not running things at all.

Or as I saw quoted in another article, which I'll paraphrase and adapt here -- in all likelihood, Rove and Cheney got together after the NC primaries and said something like, "We can get this boob elected, but there's no way he's up to running things. If there's a real crisis, we will keep him well away from the big red buttons and take care of it."

Just my thoughts.