Reply #5: Temptation of "absolute" power

[PATRICK]

which is 100% perception is to merely turn anything that happens- even a negative- toward one's advantage. This has the advantage of keeping, in perception, any setback or opposition off balance and defensive. When you get to something inescapable, like the Alamo, cheering up the troops by saying Santa Ana will cut and run starts getting a little ineffective. But for a president who enjoys the advantages of an obeisant press, absolute power, obeisant Congress, muddled public, foes always at a a disadvantage and quick to be put of the defensive it is sustainable everywhere except on the actual battlefield.

In our inverse Alamo Bush's insane vulnerability to reality just keeps ticking- like a bomb, but the Rove spinning keeps waving Mandrake hands at our perception.