Rice, from "Dead Certain": It’s not MY exercising influence over him. I’m internalizing HIS world.

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Books of The Times
Bush Profiled: Big Ideas, Tiny Details
By MICHIKO KAKUTANI
Published: September 5, 2007


DEAD CERTAIN
The Presidency of George W. Bush
By Robert Draper

...It is also clear from Mr. Draper’s book that President Bush dislikes criticism and bad news, and that staffers found it very hard “to stick one’s arm into the fiercely whirring gears of Team Bush’s institutionalized optimism and say, ‘Let’s ... slow... down. And rethink this.’ ” For that matter, this volume is studded with examples — on matters ranging from the Iraq war to Hurricane Katrina — of aides failing to deliver distressing information to the president or failing to persuade him to grapple quickly with unfortunate developments.

In her much-criticized role as national security adviser, Ms. Rice, for instance, is described as deciding to be the president’s information broker and sounding board rather than the person, as Mr. Draper puts it, who would ruffle “his feathers with opinions that he did not share.” She is quoted as telling a close friend: “It’s not my exercising influence over him. I’m internalizing his world.”

As other reporters and former administration insiders have frequently observed, dissenting views, be they on Iraq or domestic policy, are rarely solicited by this White House, and Mr. Draper writes that one of Mr. Bush’s most pronounced traits is “an almost petulant heedlessness to the outside world.” Members of the Iraq Study Group told Mr. Draper that they found the president “far more upbeat than the realities in Iraq seemed to warrant,” and that it occurred to one of them that President Bush did not so much want to hear their views as “convince us that we should be writing a report that would reflect his views.”

What’s more, when dissenting views did reach the president, the results could be an obstinate digging in of heels....The best approach to selling the ever-competitive president on an idea, aides told Mr. Draper, was to tell him, “This is going to be a really tough decision.” Mr. Rumsfeld (whose own Big Idea was to “transform” the military and go into Iraq with a lighter, faster force) gave similar advice, telling his lieutenants that if they wanted the president’s support for an initiative, it was always best to frame it as a “Big New Thing.”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/05/books/05kaku.html

[Delphinus]

1. I heard this author yesterday on NPR

and was flabbergasted when he said the boy king had become so much more mature than when he was governor! That he used to play pranks, and doesn't do that anymore - yeah, right!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. I dunno. Methinks Iraq is kind of a prank, from his view.

I heard that interview too, and was, well, confused.

[lazer47]

5. The pranks are now just being played on the international level

and no longer at the state level, unless you include Katrina

[Whoa_Nelly]

6. Iraq is his biggest "prank" so far

Precedented by his theft of the presidency, and soon to be followed by the upcoming sequel to Iraq, "Pranking Iran".

[TahitiNut]

7. Prank: Firecracker in a frog's anus. NotPrank: Sending nearly 4,000 to die.

It's escalation. I guess Draper just doesn't get Smirk & Sneer's sense of humor.

[zabet]

9. Agreed...

Sociopathic behaviors can begin manfesting as cruelty to animals, if
left untreated, it can escalate to large scale violence and harm, or
death to others.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

14. kinda like we see each and every day here.

to the chagrin of the world.

[Danieljay]

3. What the hell kind of nutjob would internalize Bush's world? Jeebus, thats creepy! n/t

[WinkyDink]

11. It's luuuuuuurve.

[Bluebear]

4. That's like internalizing a can of Play-Doh.

[Marr]

8. That sounds like the behavior of an ideologue.

Unconcerned with facts, hostile to dissenting opinions. Bush is a particularly bad ideologue, because he's such a witless, arrogant moron that he's even more obstinate than the norm.

[Mrs. Overall]

10. Maybe "internalizing HIS world" is Condi's euphemism for sex.

[Danieljay]

12. oh my God! Don't even suggest that picture. blechh.

[UTUSN]

13. Yeah, Condo, we know what you're internalizing!!1 n/t

[paparush]

15. Bush Grappling with Tough Issues is like a tree sloth juggling chainsaws...