The pundits will have to go into rehab--the TV talking heads, newspaper columnists, the bloggers who have been overdosing on Obama-Clinton for more than a year and just can't quit cold turkey.
Maureen Dowd ransacks pop culture to describe Hillary as "less Blanche than Scarlett. 'Heaven help the Yankees if they capture you,' Rhett told the willful belle at the start of her rugged odyssey.
"And heaven help the Democrats as they try to shake off Hillary. On top of her inane vows to obliterate Iran, OPEC and the summer gas tax, she plans 'a nuclear option' during her Shermanesque march to Denver...get the Florida and Michigan delegates seated."
"Is Hillary Done?" Howard Kurtz asks in the Washington Post but scrounges for evidence that she isn't after citing the New York Post headline "TOAST" and Andrew Sullivan confesses that Obama's "patriotic message tonight...moved me to my core" while noting that "African-American voters killed the Clinton candidacy."
The reluctance to let go brings back memories of what the politicians said after Eisenhower had a heart attack before his reelection in 1956: If he dies, they'll run him posthumously.
The Clinton campaign is now entering its life-after-death phase.
Showing posts with label addiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label addiction. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Drunk on Power and Piety
If less were at stake, George Bush's personal journey would evoke sorrow and pity--a ruined life being "redeemed" by self-deception.
His statement to Martha Raddatz of ABC about addiction is like watching a man walk unknowingly toward a cliff and taking a whole nation with him.
"I had too much to drink one night, and the next day I didn't have any," Bush said. "The next day I decided to quit and I haven't had a drink since 1986."
"And you did it just cold turkey?" asked Raddatz.
"I'm a better man for it," Bush said.
For two decades, the 40-year-old who made that decision with no self-knowledge has replaced one addiction for another, giving up alcohol for power and piety without understanding what drove him to either and the distortion of reality that comes with both.
It doesn't take psychological training to see the signs--the stubbornness, the inappropriately cheerful response to disaster, the refusal to listen to any questioning of his behavior--that would be clear in an addict from any other walk of life.
His father's speechwriter, Peggy Noonan, came close to calling it in the Wall Street Journal, of all places:
“Presidents in great enterprises that are going badly suffer: Lincoln, LBJ with his head in his hands. Why doesn't Mr. Bush? Every major domestic initiative of his second term has been ill thought through and ended in failure. His Iraq leadership has failed. His standing is lower than any previous president since polling began. He's in a good mood...
“Americans...like the president to be the cool-eyed realist, the tough customer who understands harsh realities. With Mr. Bush it is the people who are forced to be cool-eyed and realistic. He's the one who goes off on the toots. This is extremely irritating, and also unnatural. Actually it's weird."
"Alcohol," the President said yesterday," can compete with your affections. It sure did in my case, affections with your family, or affections for exercise. It was the competition that I decided just wasn't worth it."
George Bush was restored to his family, he exercises regularly and he has no clue about what addictive behavior can do when it takes over the most powerful position in the world.
His statement to Martha Raddatz of ABC about addiction is like watching a man walk unknowingly toward a cliff and taking a whole nation with him.
"I had too much to drink one night, and the next day I didn't have any," Bush said. "The next day I decided to quit and I haven't had a drink since 1986."
"And you did it just cold turkey?" asked Raddatz.
"I'm a better man for it," Bush said.
For two decades, the 40-year-old who made that decision with no self-knowledge has replaced one addiction for another, giving up alcohol for power and piety without understanding what drove him to either and the distortion of reality that comes with both.
It doesn't take psychological training to see the signs--the stubbornness, the inappropriately cheerful response to disaster, the refusal to listen to any questioning of his behavior--that would be clear in an addict from any other walk of life.
His father's speechwriter, Peggy Noonan, came close to calling it in the Wall Street Journal, of all places:
“Presidents in great enterprises that are going badly suffer: Lincoln, LBJ with his head in his hands. Why doesn't Mr. Bush? Every major domestic initiative of his second term has been ill thought through and ended in failure. His Iraq leadership has failed. His standing is lower than any previous president since polling began. He's in a good mood...
“Americans...like the president to be the cool-eyed realist, the tough customer who understands harsh realities. With Mr. Bush it is the people who are forced to be cool-eyed and realistic. He's the one who goes off on the toots. This is extremely irritating, and also unnatural. Actually it's weird."
"Alcohol," the President said yesterday," can compete with your affections. It sure did in my case, affections with your family, or affections for exercise. It was the competition that I decided just wasn't worth it."
George Bush was restored to his family, he exercises regularly and he has no clue about what addictive behavior can do when it takes over the most powerful position in the world.
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