Optimistic Denial

While the country and the Republican party collapses around him, the president entrenches himself firmly inside his bubble. Read on from the NYT:

Inside the White House, the staff is exhausted and the mood is defiant. Republicans are clamoring for a new chief of staff, the West Wing just cut its losses on a deal that would have given a Dubai company control of some terminal operations at six American ports, and President Bush's approval rating is at a record low.

But senior staff members insist that Mr. Bush is in good spirits, that calls from his party to inject new blood into the White House make him ever more stubborn to keep the old, and that he has become so inured to outside criticism that he increasingly tunes it out. There is no sense of crisis, they say, even over rebellious Republicans in Congress, because the White House has been in almost constant crisis since Sept. 11, 2001, and Mr. Bush has never had much regard for Congress anyway.

Why shouldn't Mr. Bush be in good spirits? He's an optimistic leader who doesn't concern himself with minutiae. What an ass. Besides, in his world he's doing a heck of a job. Tax cuts are firmly place. His corporate buddies are flush with cash. He avenged his daddy by removing Saddam (which has also kept his corporate buddies flush with cash). He's helping out his higher power by Talbanizing the country. All of this while still keeping up with his daily workouts and getting to bed by nine. Life's just grand for the king of Pennsylvania Avenue. For America, not so much.

Read more, it's fundamental.