From: JOHN C ROBINSON
Subject: weblog posting
Date: Fri 11/3/2006 4:41 PM


Dear Dean Velvel;

I was rather bleakly amused by your post today - just a few days ago I read an editorial in our local rag that set forth a number of things that Mr. Bush 'should do' in the next months and years to restore his credibility and perhaps the situation in the Middle East and the world. As my wife could no doubt attest, I am a fairly mild-mannered fellow, but this set me off a bit; among other things, I recall ranting about how on Earth these editorials could still be produced 6 years into this man's reign, when there is no objective evidence that he does anything he 'should do' from any responsible point of view. His policy choices and actions have (charitably) mostly been poorly-considered and even more poorly carried out. He has shown little sign of being aware of or concerned with anything beyond the political machinations of his management team, and he has demonstrated many of the hallmarks of a second-rate middle-manager: inflexibility, theft of credit for ideas that migh t make him look better, blame-shifting when things go bad, loyalty to sycophants and ego-massagers, and hostility to those who disagree with (and therefore ego-threaten) him. He would have made a practically ideal Bourbon king (perhaps more of a Spanish than French Bourbon, considering his combination of weak viciousness and petulant incompetence). This was all quite visible, I understand, in his years as governor of Texas, and much of it was clearly visible in his run-up to coronation as GOP candidate for the 2000 election. And yet, supposedly intelligent people are still seeing in this Rohrshach-blot of a man the things they want him to be. Alas, we get the government we deserve (where 'we' is the whole group, for good or ill...). The big question, of course, is whether this administration will allow a change in control of the Congress, given their manifest (and justified) fear of the consequences of their actions to date. Let's hope that I am once again being over-pe ssimistic; I don't mind being wrong when being right spells disaster..
Sincerely,

John Robinson