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Monday, October 18, 2004

Without a Doubt

From Ron Suskind's in-depth portrait of George W. Bush, "Without a Doubt," in this weekend's New York Times Magazine:

Bruce Bartlett, a domestic policy adviser to Ronald Reagan and a treasury official for the first President Bush, told me recently that "if Bush wins, there will be a civil war in the Republican Party starting on Nov. 3." The nature of that conflict, as Bartlett sees it? Essentially, the same as the one raging across much of the world: a battle between modernists and fundamentalists, pragmatists and true believers, reason and religion.

''Just in the past few months,'' Bartlett said, ''I think a light has gone off for people who've spent time up close to Bush: that this instinct he's always talking about is this sort of weird, Messianic idea of what he thinks God has told him to do.'' Bartlett, a 53-year-old columnist and self-described libertarian Republican who has lately been a champion for traditional Republicans concerned about Bush's governance, went on to say: ''This is why George W. Bush is so clear-eyed about Al Qaeda and the Islamic fundamentalist enemy. He believes you have to kill them all. They can't be persuaded, that they're extremists, driven by a dark vision. He understands them, because he's just like them. . . .

''This is why he dispenses with people who confront him with inconvenient facts,'' Bartlett went on to say. ''He truly believes he's on a mission from God. Absolute faith like that overwhelms a need for analysis. The whole thing about faith is to believe things for which there is no empirical evidence.'' Bartlett paused, then said, ''But you can't run the world on faith.''

Those inconvenient facts... Indeed, Bush is hitting up against those every time he turns around now. No WMD in Saddam's arsenal. Increased casualties in Iraq. Record budget deficit. Net job losses. A world of resentment in the global community.

Suskind's piece paints a picture of a man incapable of leadership. Of course, this is clear from merely examining the decisions made over the past four years; but Suskind provides an inside perspective on this reality.

A cluster of particularly vivid qualities was shaping George W. Bush's White House through the summer of 2001: a disdain for contemplation or deliberation, an embrace of decisiveness, a retreat from empiricism, a sometimes bullying impatience with doubters and even friendly questioners. Already Bush was saying, Have faith in me and my decisions, and you'll be rewarded. All through the White House, people were channeling the boss.

Suskind states, "Whether you can run the world on faith, it's clear you can run one hell of a campaign on it."

And it is a campaign that is running a neck and neck race with challenger John F. Kerry. Let's hope the American electorate will do what Bush's cadre of 'yes men' have not done: Say no to four more years.

Newspaper Candidate Endorsements

Editor and Publisher's compilation of newspaper endorsements (updated Oct 18) gives John Kerry a resounding edge:

John F. Kerry
48 newspapers total
8,935,195 daily circulation

George W. Bush
34 newspapers total
4,776,231 daily circulation

Here's what some of the papers are saying in support of John F. Kerry for president:

We have been impressed with Mr. Kerry's wide knowledge and clear thinking - something that became more apparent once he was reined in by that two-minute debate light. He is blessedly willing to re-evaluate decisions when conditions change. And while Mr. Kerry's service in Vietnam was first over-promoted and then over-pilloried, his entire life has been devoted to public service, from the war to a series of elected offices. He strikes us, above all, as a man with a strong moral core.
[...]
There is no denying that this race is mainly about Mr. Bush's disastrous tenure. Nearly four years ago, after the Supreme Court awarded him the presidency, Mr. Bush came into office amid popular expectation that he would acknowledge his lack of a mandate by sticking close to the center. Instead, he turned the government over to the radical right.
[...]
Like the tax cuts, Mr. Bush's obsession with Saddam Hussein seemed closer to zealotry than mere policy. He sold the war to the American people, and to Congress, as an antiterrorist campaign even though Iraq had no known working relationship with Al Qaeda. His most frightening allegation was that Saddam Hussein was close to getting nuclear weapons. It was based on two pieces of evidence. One was a story about attempts to purchase critical materials from Niger, and it was the product of rumor and forgery. The other evidence, the purchase of aluminum tubes that the administration said were meant for a nuclear centrifuge, was concocted by one low-level analyst and had been thoroughly debunked by administration investigators and international vetting. Top members of the administration knew this, but the selling went on anyway. None of the president's chief advisers have ever been held accountable for their misrepresentations to the American people or for their mismanagement of the war that followed.
~ The New York Times

(The) cause of fighting global terrorism was mislaid. At home, (President) Bush has consistently favored the rich and powerful. ... Finally, as Nevadans we find it impossible to endorse the president who has decided Yucca Mountain is a scientifically sound repository for the nation's nuclear waste.
--Nevada Appeal (Carson City)

Four years ago, this page endorsed George W. Bush for president. We cannot do so again ��” because of an ill-conceived war and its aftermath, undisciplined spending, a shrinkage of constitutional rights and an intrusive social agenda.
~ The Seattle Times

A nation cannot wage war indefinitely while undermining its economic and social foundations at home. Yet the president insisted year after year on tax cuts, skewed disproportionately toward the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, while ratcheting up discretionary domestic spending at a rate that distressed even his own natural allies. The consequences were predictable: A slide from surplus into deficit, made inevitable by the war, was deepened and lengthened by Bush policies.
~ The Daily Camera (Boulder, CO)