Junior was known as an extremely aggressive player in the venerable Parker Brothers board game,

[rodeodance]

I do believe Jr still likes the game------only this time he is playing with real lives--that DIE>

.......Junior was known as an extremely aggressive player in the venerable Parker Brothers board game, a brutal contest that requires bluster and bluffing as you invade countries, all the while betraying alliances. Notably, it’s almost impossible to win Risk and conquer the world if you start the game in the Middle East, because you’re surrounded by enemies.

His gamesmanship extended to sports — he loved going into overtime and demanding that points be played over because he wasn’t quite ready.

As Graydon Carter recollects in the new Vanity Fair, Gail Sheehy wrote an article for the magazine about W. that made this point: “Even if he loses, his friends say, he doesn’t lose. He’ll just change the score, or change the rules, or make his opponent play until he can beat him.”

W.’s best friend when he was a teenager in Houston, Doug Hannah, told Ms. Sheehy: “If you were playing basketball and you were playing to 11 and he was down, you went to 15.”

Even if it was clear who was winning, W. wanted to go further to see what would happen. It was a technique that worked well in Tallahassee in 2000, but not so well in Tikrit.

Word is that even as they Surge, the Bush team is already working on Plan C, or as they will no doubt call it, The New, New Way Forward II.


http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/13/opinion/13dowd.html?th&emc=th

[Kutjara]

1. It's too bad the Little Emperor's friends and family...

...tolerated his Neroesque antics. Any normal person who repeatedly tried to pull that "best two out of three?" crap would be told, firmly, to fuck off and find someone else to play with.

[rodeodance]

2. the damage was done and now we are all paying for it.

[loudsue]

3. ENABLING by any other name.....

still makes for an addict that keeps on maintaining dysfunctional relationships, and who remains dysfunctional.

:kick::kick::kick:

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

4. I'm reminded of this scene from "Bottom"

Richie (Rik Mayall) & Eddie (Adrian Edmondson) are without a TV and are struggling to find entertainment. They discover a chess set, find replacements for the missing pieces and eventually sit down to play. Unfortunately Richie doesn't know the rules ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hA0WjUTR2c

[no_hypocrisy]

5. Big difference between * and the attitude that Joe Kennedy instilled in his kids.

* changed the rules, negotiated with his opponents until he could win, maybe cheated. Joe Kennedy told his kids that they could only win. Losing or coming in second was not an option, thus, the apparently reckless behavior in some children (Joe Jr. in taking the risky secret mission in WWI, JFK with the PT boat, etc.)

But here's the difference. As much as Joe liked to win no matter what, he didn't tell his kids to CHEAT, but rather, to "play the game" better than anyone else and to have a strategy to go with the superlative skills. THAT'S a winner.

[Ouabache]

6. he is like a gambling addict in that

he always craves a continuation of "the action".