Mr Bush is working his way down the thirties (currently at 32% approval) on his way to the twenties. It’s hard work — hard work! — but he’ll get to 25 by August, peg by peg.
That’s a CNN poll, too, so it doesn’t trend as low as, say, Zogby or Pew.
But Mr Bush is taking time out to discuss Iraq, and maybe some things that he could have done better.
“I also want to let you know that before you commit troops that you must do everything that you can to solve the problem diplomatically,” he commented. “And I can look you in the eye and tell you I feel I tried to solve the problem diplomatically to the max
His elocution is improving, but I thought his day-glo accents and jelly shoes were a bit much.
and would have committed troops both in Afghanistan and Iraq, knowing what I know today.”
Actually, I meant to say: he explained why he would do everything the same all over again.
Oh, and did you know he also believes in God?
Bush also explained, in unusually stark terms, how his belief in God influences his foreign policy. “I base a lot of my foreign policy decisions on some things that I think are true,” he said. “One, I believe there’s an Almighty.”
Yes, an almighty… stench of hypocrisy coming from the direction of the White House.
Once again, Bush shows his ability to ignore facts and embrace comforting ideology. Way back before I understood about evolution, I knew that it posed a serious threat to my religious understanding. And I’m ashamed to say that at the time, I decided to ignore the facts and stick to the fiction. My education would have to wait until the day I decided it was more important to go with facts than preconceptions. A day, incidentally, that signalled the end of my religious faith. But I still do see this pattern play out in religious believers I talk to. Somehow when a belief is very very important, we marshall all our cognitive faculties to protect it from attack, whether it be that God exists, that we’re good people, or that we’re bringing freeance and peeance to the world.
“And, secondly, I believe one of the great gifts of the Almighty is the desire in everybody’s soul, regardless of what you look like or where you live, to be free.”
Do you think he knows that this is an ex post facto attempt to explain Iraq, or that he doesn’t know?
What a disaster. Folks, you don’t want a leader who has a religious ideology. You want an agnostic pragmatist. Someone who’s going to say, “Let’s have a look at the various solutions to this problem. What’s been tried? What effect did it have? And let’s be careful — no Supreme Being is going to pull our fat out of the fire if we screw it up.”
A religious ideologue would say, “I’m coming at the problem with this viewpoint, which I firmly believe to be true. I’m going to implement it, and I’m going to assume that because my princples are true and my heart is good, the plan will work.” And then if it doesn’t work, don’t change the plan. That would imply that the cherished ideology is wrong. Just have faith.
Religious ideologies are disastrous from a public policy point of view, be they Taliban or Christian Coalition. If you want to see the logical consequences of faith-based living and leaderhsip, you need look no further than George W. Bush.
26 April 2006 at 11:32 pm
I heard a great trailer for a comedy programme on BBC Radio 4. It a comedy take on revolution. The voice said (words to this effect…) ‘why do we want an independent America? Because we don’t want to be ruled by some idiot called George who’s there because he’s the son of some other idiot called George’.
I imagine you also enjoyed the irony of Dubya lecturing the Chinese president on human rights as if Guantanamo and ‘extraordinary rendition’ are a slap on the wrist.