Slate is excerpting "Dead Certain" this week - Part One

[RamboLiberal]

5 weeks after the 2006 election.

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"If you're weak internally? This job will run you all over town," the president observed. He was sitting in the small conference room beside the Oval Office where his predecessor, Bill Clinton, infamously found leisure time with Monica Lewinsky. His back was to the White House lawn. He had flung himself into his chair like a dirty sweatshirt and continued to pop pieces of cheese into his mouth. Stress was hammered into his face. The subject was himself—how his leadership skills had evolved over time, and how he had dealt with disappointment and defeat, going back to his loss to Senator John McCain in the New Hampshire primary of 2000 and now, once again, in 2006.

Bush, as always, bridled at the request to navel-gaze. "You're the observer," he said as he worked the cheese in his mouth. "I'm not. I really do not feel comfortable in the role of analyzing myself. I'll try. But I don't spend a lot of time. I will tell you, the primaries strip you down to your bare essence, and you get to determine whether or not you're willing to fight through—to prevail. It's a real test of will, I agree to that. I think the whole process was responsible for testing my will. No question getting defeated was a powerful moment."

He added, "I've never run a race where I thought I wouldn't win. I thought we were gonna hold the House and the Senate in '06. I thought we'd lose nine or ten seats, and I thought we'd be one or two up in the Senate."

Bush had held that view, almost manic in its optimism, all the way up to election day, in defiance of all available polling data. At the very mention of such data, his face began to curdle. "I understand you can't let polls tell you what to think," he declared—one of his most frequently expressed sentiments, but now he went further: "And part of being a leader is: people watch you. I walk in that hall, I say to those commanders—well, guess what would happen if I walk in and say, 'Well, maybe it's not worth it.' When I'm out in the public"—and now he was fully animated, yanked out of his slouch and his eyes clenched like little blue fists—"I fully understand that the enemy watches me, the Iraqis are watching me, the troops watch me, and the people watch me.

http://www.slate.com/id/2173193/entry/0/

[yardwork]

1. Disgusting eating habits. It says something about a person.

He shovels gross food into his mouth without thinking about what he's doing. That sums up his whole approach to life.

[RamboLiberal]

3. Yep - I was thinking Chimps have better table manners

From OP article: "The job of the president," he continued, through an ample wad of bread and sausage, "is to think strategically so that you can accomplish big objectives. As opposed to playing mini-ball. You can't play mini-ball with the influence we have and expect there to be peace. You've gotta think, think BIG. The Iranian issue," he said as bread crumbs tumbled out of his mouth and onto his chin,

And this book is supposed to flatter him! :rofl:

[Virginia Dare]

2. I always feel like somebody's watching me..

and I have no privacy, whoa-oa-oa (apologies to Rockwell) ..:eyes:

[bunkerbuster1]

5. He hears the voices

But he's the Decider!

[Supersedeas]

4. the Decider guy does some funny things with his blue eyes clenched....animated propoganda

[bunkerbuster1]

6. I love his bit about being "out in the public"

To wit:

When I'm out in the public"—and now he was fully animated, yanked out of his slouch and his eyes clenched like little blue fists—"I fully understand that the enemy watches me, the Iraqis are watching me, the troops watch me, and the people watch me.

If I were in that room at the time, I'd have to ask--"just when the hell do you imagine you're actually out in the public, sir? Is it during your carefully-screened Town Hall get-togethers? Is it during the press conferences and other elbow-rubbing with the DC establishment?"

If this guy had to deal with "the public" he'd shit his pants.

[Solly Mack]

7. "You can't possibly figure out the history of the Bush presidency—until I'm dead."

My, that's telling.

Counting on death to insulate him...

[RaleighNCDUer]

8. I fully understand that the enemy watches me, the Iraqis are watching me, the troops watch me, and

the people watch me.

Paranoid much?

Sounds a bit Nixonian.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

9. That goddamn fool...

He isn't ever going to give up on this stupid fucking war.