We have gone through much as a nation in the last few years. For my part, I have had enough of the public emoting and lecturn pounding masquerading as leadership, enough of the talk of how hard the job is. The right criticized Clinton for his lip-biting but doesn’t seem to see the same sort of pandering in Bush’s tears.

We have not been treated very often to greatness. There is an aspect of inspiration in leadership, but it is no substitute for action.

Look, withdrawl (immediate or not) is the only option available at this point. You can go on and on about Bush’s screw-ups. But it doesn’t matter, because he doesn’t think he’s made mistakes. Medals of Freedom for everyone. He will never listen to constructive criticism, he will never change course. The army and NG are on their last legs and they are still talking about staying there for 5 more years at least. Like the tragedy in NO, they are willfull blind to the fact that a moment of tough decisions is coming.

Bush doesn’t care, he’s going to go on repeating his platitudes “stay the course” “can’t let the terrorists win” right up till the end. Bush and friends don’t plan for foreseeable problems they only react when those problems after they have occurred. Until then they just sit around and hope that things will work out. Like it or not we will be withdrawing most of the army next year, if Bush was smart he would be planning for other options to minimize the chaos that will ensue. Of course, he’s not.

Steven T. has a terrific, thoughtful post from Friday on President Bush’s “leadership.”
I agree, first of all, with Steven’s assessment that the high grade the public gave Bush for “leadership” was one of the most…