Why Bush Can't Talk, It's Not The Drugs and It's Not Senility

[Uncle Joe]

An excellent diary from Inland at DailyKos. Please click on link for full diary also nice pictures of fear and frustration with trying to keep a story straight on a previous D.U. thread at bottom by Human Torch.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/8/24/22043/1891


<snip>

"I think the reason George Bush stumbles, ends sentences midway through to jump to another thought, rattles off non-sequiturs, and makes up words, is that George Bush is breaking under the strain of lying almost all the time about almost everything.

I think it's because lying is hard work, and he's trying to hold several different false scenarios in his head while not blurting out what he's really being told behind closed doors.

Bush looks like a person stumbling over the easiest things, but in fact, he's not a person unable to relate simple facts. He's a person trying hard to NOT relate simple facts. He's a person trying to avoid the pitfalls of saying what's on his mind, and trying to keep his stories straight.

As I lawyer, I see people trying to construct false scenarios all the time. But you don't remember lies the way you remember truth. It's easier to remember, e.g., how fast you were driving than it is to remember the exact lie you told the police officer about how fast you were driving. People who lie have to put a lot of energy into keeping their lies consistent with each other and, well, consistent with undeniable facts."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2795790

[liberal N proud]

1. There is some truth to that

Lier's do have trouble keeping everything straight and eventually have trouble with the lies upon lies.

It is so much easier to just tell the truth, less to keep track of.

[alcibiades_mystery]

3. Good liars just incorporate the lies into a truth narrative

The notion that the truth is easier to remember than a lie is mostly a fairy tale we tell children to keep them from lying outright. In fact, the truth is always colored by our perceptions and subsequent experiences, and is almost never remembered accurately. There are three kinds of liars:

Bad liars - These cats di indeed have problems remembering their lies, and are mostly harmless for it.
Outrageous Liars - This version of the liar has trouble hemming in the lies to make them plausible. It's a sickness, and they are mostly harmfless as well, since nobody believes that they are trained in 18 kinds of martial arts and have had sex with 1,500 people by the time they are 19.
Good Liars - Good liars are easily able to remember everything because they tell reasonable, plausible lies that they then fit into a life narrative. It's not that they "believe" the lies (ultimately, they don't), so much as they are able to make the narrative internally consistent. Many people are good liars by accident, but there are also practiced good liars. In my view, the good liars far outnumber the other versions; it's just that the others are more visible.

[Uncle Joe]

5. So which category would you place Bush? n/t

[Arkansas Granny]

4. There's an old saying around this part of the country, and probably

others as well, that you only have to remember the truth once.

[patrice]

2. I've always thought it was because there was something that he

was supposed to say, given to him by his handler Karl Rove, so he had to stop sometimes and remember what, but you'd think with a little practice his memory would get better wouldn't you.

Your explanation adds the additional interference of which talking point, out of several he could use, is supposed to be used for which lie, out of several lies, he's dealing with at the particular moment.

He's in danger of giving up on the double confusion pretty soon and just babbling complete nonesense.

[smomfr]

6. He´s getting close to ¨going postal¨ because ..........

he figured out his presidentsy is the crowning failure of his life and poppy can´t bail him out nor can he just walk away like he did from all his other failures.

[ginnyinWI]

7. It's not as simple as lying, IMO

One one level, he's a true believer, a neo-con ideologue who believes in his cause. This is his true core.

Then there's a second layer--the one which screens out stuff they know will be damaging. This is where the constructed stories about why we are in Iraq, etc. reside. They put this reality up instead of the real truth--although * has slipped up sometimes and let his real ideas leak out.

They've been going with the second, public-friendly layer for a long time, and are so used to it that they've come to believe it themselves, almost. But now that the public is seeing through it and it is disintegating around them, Bush is more and more going back to the real truth--as a last ditch effort to try to shore up support and political power.
I think that's why he declared Monday that we're not leaving Iraq "so long as I'm president". This would certainly not have played well at all a few years ago--but now it's "what the hell--we've got to get public support back--pull out all stops."

[Dhalgren]

8. "Remember, Jerry,

it isn't a lie, if you believe it." George Costanza.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

9. K & R, because you agree with me

I've tried to lie, I'm pretty bad at it. I can't even put one over on my kids.

[calimary]

10. One more vote, guys. So more people see this...

I think this makes perfect sense. He's got too many lies anymore to try to keep straight - especially with the limited reasoning and brain function he has.

K&R

[JunkYardDogg]

11. He's a certifiable Socio/psychopath- his reality isn't ours

He was born into, raised and acculturated in a parallel reality where he was programmed,trained, and taught that he was not accountable for his behavior, he was beyond moral and ethical rules and parameters, and he was exposed to the justification and acceptance of the most extreme and heinous political acts imaginable ( murder of political opponents, assassination of an American President, drug smuggling) etc by his father, as acceptable standards for political and social behavior. The
communication and expression (speaking) problems which he exhibits are a result of his problems translating his socio/psychopathic values into mainstream society's acceptable value and behavioral standards. This is such an extreme conflict which he at times is unable to solve. Plus he really does seem to be a fucking morally and ethically bankrupt idiot.

[opihimoimoi]

12. I see it as BRAIN DAMAGED, COM'P, INEPTNESS, and OBLIVIOUS

We have the WEAKEST LINK in the Oval Office...he is beyond repair...Kaput, Wasted, Broken, etc....

He ain't normal by any sense of the word...

[gordianot]

13. Many of his current speech problems have increased in the last 8 years.

Given the sheer amount strange pronouncements the man is almost incoherent. His utterance's provide a window into who and what George W. Bush represents. As to root cause I suspect it is some of all of the above.

[Disturbed]

15. George Bush Medical Bombshell: Brain Damage Drama

George Bush Medical Bombshell: Brain Damage Drama
by CONSPIRACY PLANET

Reports by a White House insider, published on TBRNews.org reveal that George W. Bush is suffering from unspecified medical problems, characterized by "seizures" or "ministrokes," possibly due to so-called cocaine stroke.

A former cocaine addict, Bush has exhibited increasingly bizarre behavior in recent years, indicative of brain damage (See: http://www.drugabuse.gov/NIDA_Notes/NNVol13N3/Cocaine.html)

Bush's mental impairment is held in check by his handler Karl Rove and Dick Cheney has become the defacto president of the United States, according to the insider's report.

Bush's performance at his latest press conference was questioned due to his anomie, characteristic of his being under heavy medication.

Also Bush's unexplained "pretzel" dive and the resulting bruise on his face several years ago are indicative of brain damage.

Medical experts suggest that mental impairment may also be a sign of HIV infection, measurable even from the earliest stages of the disease. Usually referred to as 'AIDS Dementia' it is recognized as fogetfulness and confusion.

http://www.thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Mental/Archive/Reactions/Q8505.html

[windbreeze]

16. I am wondering if anyone remembers how he refused to take

his yearly physical before the election in 2004???I figured at the time, it should raise questions as to his physical/mental condition....so exactly how WOULD we feel, if a severely damaged (mentally or physically)person was allowed to be "elected"...especially IF THEY KNEW IT at the time...???
wb...

[alfredo]

14. I think the press conference this week was a defining moment

He was at his worst. He looked awful too. He acted like a kid trying to explain his way out of a lie.

In the end we got a "I am not a crook" image that will be all over the internet.

[indepat]

18. Looks like a tough on crime, tough on drugs resolute Repug to me

[alfredo]

21. Or a paranoid asshole son of a capitalist pig.

[ShortnFiery]

17. Yes, Our Entire Country is walking on eggshells ...

The Media ... His Subordinates ... EVERYONE around Dear Leader because we are all so scared sh*tless that we will offend him into another World Class Tirade evolving in him using tactical Nukes to bomb Iran.

This guy is that CRAZY?!? But everyone is so hopeful that if we just calmly talk sense, he will not do what WE KNOW that he will eventually do.

Seemingly all politicians within the entire Country are behaving like the Co-Dependents of Addicts who want to believe that IF WE CAN INFLUENCE our loved one the right way, he/she will NEVER use again. WRONG!

We are watching a slow train wreck toward World War Three! :scared: I fear that no one has the courage in Our Congress or Supreme Court to say "ENOUGH!" to the Insane Clown Posse Leader within the Executive Branch. :crazy: :nuke:

[newspeak]

19. In Mark Crispin Miller's book "Bush Dyslexicon"

he says that you can notice what * is comfortable talking about-when he's speaking about compassion or caring, he stutters and becomes noticeably uncomfortable--when he is speaking about war, threats, killing, he appears more comfortable.

[Uncle Joe]

20. It truly is a surreal feeling

to be in the most powerful nation on the planet and have to be afraid of your own "leader's" state of mind. I imagine the Romans had similar feelings about Caligula and the like.

[Mz Pip]

22. It could be all three.

Juggling lies, drugs and mental shortcomings is what Bush is doing. It's all of the above.

Mz Pip
:dem: