Shaking Head

One of the things about the last 8 years of the Bush administration that I have lamented on these pages is the loss of the "wizard behind the curtain of politics" that I had always assumed to be. No matter who the president was, I always assumed that he was surrounded by geniuses who guided his words in backrooms filled with smoke and banker's lamps as speechwriters clackity-clacked away on word processors. The last eight years have revealed that these people can be not only human, but sometimes idiots themselves. I mean, look at Bush's speech the other day that has caused such a stir. Yeah, I can paint Bush as being an irrational emotional idiot blah blah blah, but how could his handlers/writers et al possibly have been okay with him saying this shit? You're telling me there wasn't anyone in the huddle who coulda said "you know what, you shouldn't say this stuff right here, right now"? And there's been so many instances of this the last few years; shit he's said that leaves you thinking "does nobody help this guy? Or is his daily working life like his foreign policy; completely unilateral with absolutely no thought?" Bizarre. He can't be that dumb, but he certainly he makes it too easy for people to shake their heads and think "what an idiot."