Megalomaniac Lost

Today's lengthy article in WaPo by Peter Baker, "A President Besieged and Isolated, Yet at Ease", has gained some attention. Here's a sampling: Atrios: I suppose everyone will take a whack at this article about the boy king, but I think the title of the post takes care of most of it. BarbinMD at dailykos: From its opening title, "A President Besieged and Isolated, Yet at Ease," to its final Bush quote of, "I'm doing okay, don't worry about me," one can't help but think that this belongs in an issue of Psychology Today, rather than as the feature article in a national newspaper. Christy at firedoglake: It isn’t enough to ask the questions about how the Bush Presidency got off course — because just asking questions still leaves the failures intact. Real leaders get up off their asses, dust themselves off, admit their errors and look them square in the eye…and then do something. Right now, all George Bush is doing is hosting a self-perpetuating pity party and treading water. Steve Soto: As Bush nears the end of his failed presidency, we can expect more and more attempts from friendly editors to buff his final months with stories like these. (…) But if a man feels he only reports to God and is unconcerned about contemporary judgment and criticism, should that not merit more attention than how resolute, serene, and confident he is? Joe Sudbay at AMERICAblog: Apparently, there is some depth to the President, we're supposed to believe. He's doing a lot of thinking with really smart people -- or thinkin' Bush would say. Unfortunately, he can't think about the problems at hand like Iraq. Bush comes across as detached and a bit delusional (and you can't help but wonder if he's on some kind of prescription). Steve Benen at The Washington Monthly: We've been hearing quite a bit lately about the president reaching out to observers outside his inner circle for big-picture bull sessions. (…) What's unclear is exactly what the president hopes to get out of these conversations. Indeed, through the course of Baker's piece, it's clear that Bush isn't looking for advice, because he's already convinced that he's right. He isn't looking for constructive criticism, because he doesn't want to change course. He isn't looking for historical predictions, because he's already certain that history will look kindly on his tenure. One gets the distinct impression that Bush is arranging meetings with these scholarly observers in the hopes that one of them will confirm everything he already believes. Oliver Willis: If George W. Bush wasn't such an evil bloodthirsty s.o.b. excuse of a failed crap-stain president, I would almost feel sorry for the guy reading this profile of him groping for the reason why he's so roundly hated (by comparison he now makes Richard Nixon, a president almost as corrupt, look good).