The Pacemaker in His Brain is Still Functional

I managed to awaken long enough this morning to watch the Dubyaview on Meet the Press. My overall reaction is expressed in the title of this post, which refers to something I read a few years back in Salon, although the first link can be accessed without a subscription. Russert's behavior was akin to that of an indulgent parent; he asked a few "uncomfortable" questions--though neglecting to even mention Valerie Plame's name--but failed to follow up. In other words, Bush's word was good enough for BeelzaTim.

Plenty of bloggers have put their own thoughts down--I've read Timshel, Mary, Matt, Kos, RudePundit, Billmon, Atrios, so far, and I'll be checking out more during the day, along with comments.

One item though, though has made it onto my own radar screen. It's in regards to the whole canard about "building democracy" in the Middle East. Bush plays this much like he's played the question of his military service: he's been so obviously coached that he might as well be reading from an index card--BTW: on that, he is now on record as saying he'll release his military records, so let's push for this (on that note, Trapper John over at Kos nicely points out the disengenousness of Bush getting an early release to attend business school while today issuing stop-loss orders on our present guardsmen). Anyway, I've digressed, but here's my point:

If we REALLY want to build democracy in the Middle East, why not start with countries that are our FRIENDS, like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia? It seems as if we'd have a LOT more success promoting democracy without simultaneously engaging in military occupation with a population which, in spite of what Bush says, hasn't exactly welcomed us with open arms. But something tells me that democracy isn't really part of the plan...something like our history vis-a-vis the region for the last seventy odd years or so.

Still, all in all, I think the Administration should be worried--all the flaws that make the Dubya such a terrible candidate were evident this morning. He was, at times, petulant, testy, cranky--and these were his good moments. In particular, he was obviously out of touch with reality when it came to questions regarding our loss of life and wounded soldiers in Iraq--shit, Bush's blank expression and poor choice of words were akin to watching someone fail a field sobriety test.

Rove, Gillespie, et al, will try to put as much lipstick on this pig as they can, but it still goes "oink" and wallows in the mud...