Another Bush Pet Goat Moment

We have just witnessed yet another "Pet Goat" moment in the sad history of the Bush presidency. Another one of the many we have suffered through. The first one of such moments was, of course, when he did not act when informed of the airliner hitting the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 and continued reading the now-famous book.

There have been many others we have not seen, but the most public "Pet Goat" moment since then had been when he appeared to be totally disengaged as New Orleans was destroyed.

He glazes over. He doesn't know what to do. He can't think. He becomes inert. We have seen it, publicly, a few times. How many times do you think Rove, Cheney and company have seen it and told him what he should do?

At the precise moment when the nation needs a leader, he fails.

This weekend is the latest example. Look at him with the other leaders. He looks out of place. Look at Putin humiliate him at the news conference as the audience of reporters laughs in his face when Putin gets off a good line about the Iraq "democracy."

Look at him making a fool out of himself driving that little golf cart. It makes Dukakis on the tank look like Patton himself.

And when he was caught talking with the microphone on, did he give a well-thought out analysis of the situation? No, it was locker room talk, the only kind he knows. He said, "See the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over."

Now there's a statement for the ages.

George W. Bush never fails to disappoint the nation. He makes fools out of all of us.

He looked totally out of his element at G8. What is his element? Hanging out with a bunch of rich goobers cracking jokes is. It is certainly not leading the world out of a dangerous conflict which threatens to become a wider war, dragging the United States in.

He is weak. He is lost. Just look at him. I've interviewed thousands of people. I am a good judge of character and intelligence. He has neither. He made a stop at the Portland, Oregon airport in the spring of 2000, long before he gained the Republican nomination. I went out there, in the media crush, just to see him and get a sense.

The first thing I noticed was that his neck was bright red. "Oh," I thought, "he must be an alki." I watched him glad hand. I came away with the simple conclusion that this was one of those men who I have tried to avoid my whole life. He was not the kind of man I wanted to drink with. I've never understood that. Wouldn't you want to drink with a man you could hold a conversation with? He looked mean and stupid.

I have had to revise my evaluation downward since then.

Perhaps someone should make him a tape of the newscasts on the Israel/ Hezbollah conflict. Never mind, he still would sound just as lost as he did all weekend. The Middle East is burning and nobody is home at the White House. We can't help because his keepers cut the U.S. off from the Islamic combatants.

The best we can hope for is that several of the G8 leaders took him by the hand and gave him a few good ideas. God knows, he's never had one on his own.

As we stagger and lurch toward the day when we are finally rid of him and his crew, America should invoke all the gods to help us avoid something irrevocable…Jesus, Allah, Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha…you name the god, we'll invoke his name.

Yes, it's that bad.


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