Thursday, August 26, 2004
Still Unable to Lead; Still Unfit to Command
We are again seeing why George W. Bush is unfit to be Commander-in-Chief.0 comments
Besides his stunning lack of leadership skills, he continues to show an appalling lack of vision. Whether in Ohio or Iraq, he keeps showing us he lacks The Right Stuff.
He and, by extention, Karl Rove, have short-term, Checkers-type mentalities when the rigors of the job demand a larger, Chessboard world view.
They are highly skilled at the Great Moment. The Big Announcement. The Really Neat and Effective Dirty Trick.
They jump your King as in Checkers and loudly tell everyone in the bar how great they are and how poorly you played, without realizing or seeing that they've just left themselves wide open for a return jump that effectively ends the game. Leaving them to scramble to save face.
Just like in Iraq. Or with the economy.
The job of President of the United States demands a Chess-type world vision, where you already see the outcome of the game a half-dozen to a dozen moves ahead.
Bush is playing right into the hands of the Democrats with the Hate Boat Vets for Bush affair. Just as he has done with the Valerie Plame case.
In each case, he had the ultimate Presidential Re-election Public Relations coup within his grasp. He received all the sound-bite milage he could have hoped to receive from each, and could personally have just pulled the plug on either affair and come out smelling like a rose, with his intended affect firmly assured.
But like amateurs at the crap tables with a serious winning streak going, he and Rove just couldn't make the smart play and walk away on top. He and Karl had to push their luck, they lost their cushion and now find themselves betting the rent money to get back even.
With the Plame case, Bush got what he and Rove wanted. Joseph Wilson was duly punished. Other potential whistleblowers had gotten the message: We will punish you severely.
So all Bush needed to do was call a press briefing, saying he was shocked—SHOCKED!!!!!—that someone would do such a dastardly, illegal thing on HIS watch, and state that HE personally would get to the bottom of it. That HE would demand the resignation of whichever of the six people in the White House in a position to know Plame's status it was (who, of course, would then be well set up in a cushy private sector job for their sacrifice), and end up looking Oh, So Presidential. "What a Leader!" "What a Man of Action!" would ooze across the Fox News screen crawler.
Then they got greedy. They stayed at the table too long. They stonewalled, instead of showing even a phoney version of leadership. Now Bush is left playing with the money that was earmarked for the twins' designer dresses. The needless investigation drags on and its results could potentially be twenty times more damaging for Bush when released.
Bush missed the very same opportunity with the Hate Boat Vets.
The ads came out. They were very damaging. John Kerry was slow to react, hoping it'd blow over. It didn't. It gained legs.
Score one for Bush/Rove.
They left the Kerry campaign looking like the U.S.S. Cole, with a very big hole in it.
John McCain even gave Bush the perfect opening, saying the ads were "dishonorable" and calling on Bush to disavow the ads.
All Bush needed to do was defer to his "wise, good friend" John McCain. Then call a press briefing, saying he was shocked, SHOCKED!!!!!, that someone would do such a dastardly, illegal thing on HIS watch, in HIS name and state that HE would get to the bottom of it. That HE would demand that only the truth be spoken in HIS name, since, after all, he was THE pillar of morality in politics and all things American.
"What a Leader!" "What a Man of Action!" would again ooze across the Fox News screen crawler.
At which point they then get everything they wanted. The embarrassing ads disappear. Kerry's left sputtering and bailing water, the faithful GOP operatives behind the attacks feel themselves to be an integral part of the political game, which shores up your base and Bush moves on to the next matter on the agenda and everyone starts planning the Inaugural Balls.
But again, they got greedy. Again, they stayed at the table too long. Now Bush is playing with the money Laura had earmarked for the twins' rehab.
Washington Post: Bush Calls McCain About Anti-Kerry Ads
The campaign now thinks it can use the courts (gee, does this mean a delay in tort reform?) and McCain to bail them out of the mess Bush and Rove have made. But both political parties have access to the same courts and laws, and McCain is now stuck in a very nasty bind.
Like Colin Powell before him, McCain finds that his high political stock derives from his public image as A Man of Integrity Above Reproach. That's why both parties court him.
But unlike Powell, McCain knows full well going in that he is in danger of seeing that carefully crafted image shattered at the hands of this administration.
Due to his personal friendship with John Kerry, and the understanding of military service the world sees him share with Kerry but of which Bush could only dream, he can't be drawn too far into his support of Bush on this.
But his ambition, and whatever price the Bush camp have given him to be Bush's shield, means he can't go too far in supporting Kerry either.
Sitting squarely in No-Man's-Land, John McCain is potentially, the biggest loser in all of this, unless he plays the game exactly right.
With every move the GOP campaign makes, it shows that this short-sighted crowd is in waaaaaaay over their heads, as far as having leadership skills in crisis situations is concerned.
Watch their actions through all of this, and think hard about how they would have handled the Cuban Missle Crisis.
I shudder at the thought.
This short-sighted mess of a campaign, remember, is brought to you by the same folks who brought you that ugly mess in Iraq.
And Ohio.
posted by Gotham 1:25 PM
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