State of the Union

I see people writing from time to time about the truth of the situation (as they see it, of course), and I am reading that Paul O'Neill wanted to always tell the truth, because that's the best way to decide policy (although I see he didn't always tell the truth). I don't think Double-face is particularly interested in truth. At any rate, if he were, the trouble with trying to get the truth to a pResident who doesn't read and can't carry on a conversation, who can't analyze situations and solve problems, is that it's a lot of wasted energy.

There's no way to address the serious issues facing the Union until there is an overhaul in the White House.

Double-face is like the Wonka Chocolate Factory: nothing goes in, nothing comes out.

Ex Treasury chief Paul O'Neill, a wealthy ($60 million) conservative, arrogant in his own right - but analytical and a very good businessman, contrasts Double-dumb with the various other presidents O'Neill worked with and for. In one excerpt from the Suskind book, The Price of Loyalty, O'Neill compares the Oaf with Gerald Ford:

"Was Ford smarter than Henry Kissinger or James Schlesinger - or, for that matter, he (O'Neill) and Greenspan? All four regularly struggled, openly and fiercely, on various landscapes of public policy. And all could claim expertise that Ford couldn't match. Yet everyone, eventually, had deferred to Ford's judgment. Why? It wasn't just because he was the President, O'Neill thought. If only it could be that easy. It was respect born from a deeper constant. After Ford finally held forth, settling this issue or that, each man had the same thought: I like the way he thinks.

O'Neill knew that [EPA chief] Whitman had never heard the President analyze a complex issue, parse opposing positions, and settle on a judicious path. In fact, no one - inside or outside the government, here or across the globe - had heard him do that to any significant degree. And that, O'Neill decided, was what Whitman was getting at with the word "credibility". It was not just the President's credibility around the world. It was credibility with his most senior officials.

One thing early on in the book that O'Neill notes is that the president-elect had not earned O'Neill's respect.

That's so important. In this culture, we give respect to people for the strangest reasons - because of their social position - or financial one - without regard for what they offer as a person. And that's too bad, because, while it's possible that a person could earn respect by virtue of attaining great finances or position, it's much more likely that they've simply inherited these things or gotten them by virtue of glad-handing or whoring some favor or another.

If you've ever worked for a boss who knew infinitely less than you, and wasn't interested in learning, and who was too ignorant to know whether he (she) were being led toward a goal or a quagmire, you know what's been going on in the White House for the past three years. Now turn that boss into a vengeful, mean-spirited megalomaniac, and give your company the power to manipulate world politics.

Double-dumb says from time to time, "I don't negotiate with myself", when he doesn't want to argue a point (because he can't). What a stupid, stupid thing to say. Apparently he doesn't realize how idiotic that is. Anyone who has any sense at all is always "negotiating with" himself - always weighing the evidence from both the past and the ever-changing present, to make the best, most justifiable decision possible at every point.

When the king is an idiot, the viziers and advisors left to their own devices will eventually destroy the kingdom. Double-dumb will go down in history as the worst thing that ever happened to the Union, and even to the world. And he won't have the faintest idea how that happened. In fact, he'll probably be shocked when he hears it. After all, he doesn't read.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.