When C-Students Hit the Campaign Trail

They end up saying stupid things. Reuters reports on pResident Bush's lame attempt to justify invading Iraq:

Faced with polls that show many believe the terror threat against them has increased due to the Iraq war, Bush argued that wars against Iraq, Afghanistan and al Qaeda have made them safer, as has diplomacy that led Libya to surrender its weapons of mass destruction programs.

"Today because America has acted, and because America has led, the forces of terror and tyranny have suffered defeat after defeat, and America and the world are safer," Bush told employees at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where components of Libya's nuclear program are being stored...

A Senate intelligence committee report last week said U.S. intelligence agencies overstated the threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, one of the White House's chief justifications for the war which removed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from power. None was ever found.

"Although we have not found stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, we were right to go into Iraq," Bush said. "We removed a declared enemy of America who had the capability of producing weapons of mass murder and could have passed that capability to terrorists bent on acquiring them."

But if we're so much safer, why is the government making contingency plans to postpone elections? Why are Iraq and Afghanistan still war zones where death and destruction are a daily fact of life? As for "defeating" Libya--I don't think restoration of full economic ties to the west in exchange for giving up a pretty rudimentary nuclear and chemical weapons program is so much a victory as it is quid pro quo--a bribe.

Both the CIA and State Department have come under scrutiny for significant error in assessing the threat from Iraq and terrorists, respectively. US Soldiers continue to be killed or wounded on a daily basis. The number of Iraqi dead is beginning to rival Saddam in his heyday. Our credibility in the world has sunk to its lowest depth ever. Yet, Bush continues to act as if all is well.

I was considering this in light of something Mr. Bush often jokes about: his rather spotty academic record. Many times, he's alluded to his "C" grade point average as an example of how someone can succeed in spite of a lazy attitude towards school. And, if you think about it, Bush's record is entirely consistent with that of a C-Student. He doesn't so much delegate responsibility as shirk it. Significant errors in intelligence gathering and/or State Department reports are brushed aside without so much as even a statement of apology, much less any determined effort to find out what went wrong. Abuses of the Geneva convention, signed off on by those at the highest levels of his administration don't result in so much as a single resignation. Instead, Bush essentially winks and grins, as if all will eventually be ok--just like it's always been in his entirely below average existence. A friend of daddy's comes along to bail him out.

For almost any job Bush might consider taking, C-level work would be fine. It's not exactly fair, but such is life. However, the most important job in the world requires quite a bit more effort--and George W. Bush's record shows nothing of that kind. His misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, his handling of the economy, and his deeply undemocratic legislation like the Patriot Act look to me like nothing so much as a poorly written term paper, delivered past the due date, with end notes hastily added to offer the appearance of effort without the actual application.

I hope this country recognizes that while C students can be fine people, they aren't exactly the folks we should elect to the highest office in the land.