My Psyche Hurts

Washington (AP) President Bush said Monday that the Iraq war is “straining the psyche of our country” but leaving now would be a disaster.

You know, I spent half the day (and half the night) listening to and reading the transcript from the latest Bush presser looking for something new to say. . . or at least some new way to say it. I mean, I continue to be outraged by so much of what dribbles out of the mouth of the Boy King, but that’s not news now, is it?

Oh, sure, there was the bit where Georgie got all excited and tried to link Iraq directly to American deaths on 9/11. . . not, that’s not news either, but the part where a member of the press corps actually called him on it, yes, that was a novel approach. . . and there was the bit where he said that as long as he was president, Americans wouldn’t leave Iraq. . . but we already knew that, too, since he said back in March that it was up to some future administration to clean up his mess.

And there was the oft-repeated phrase “The Freedom Agenda,” which sounds like some second-rate early-‘70’s clone of the Mike Curb Congregation—you should hear The Freedom Agenda’s cover of “Burning Bridges”—and makes me think that maybe the vaunted Rove neologicon is running on fumes. . . but I checked, and Bush has been saying TFA for a few months now.

(I also checked to see if Joe Lieberman had used the term. . . not yet, to the best of my knowledge, but keep googling, I feel it can’t be long.)

No, after making my brain hurt. . . again. . . my biggest takeaway from Monday is just how fucking inarticulate this guy is. Wait, you say, President Bush is inarticulate? OK, I know it’s still not news. . . but it is amazing that he gets to do this, talk like this, in the role of leader of the free world, and nobody just stands up and shouts, “Do you have any idea what you’re saying?”

I am left with a strong urge to say, “Why try to analyze this at all?” I mean, can you read the tealeaves in a container of Crystal Light? Most of what this guy says is such utter rubbish that pretending the President is a newsmaker almost seems like a distraction—a diversionary tactic meant to steer us away from the real, new newsy news.

Oh, gosh, that is exactly the point, isn’t it?

Shit.