It's also a clinically recognized psychiatric disease called "paranoid delusion".

As Don Henley says: "you keep going in circles that just keep getting smaller... you wake up one morning, and half your ..." presidency is gone.

Clark: he desires to be kept insulated and from what I’ve talked to, members of Congress and others, who have seen him in recent weeks and recent months. He has done everything he can to wall himself off from what we believe is the truth.

Noonan: As I watched the news conference, it occurred to me that one of the things that might leave people feeling somewhat disoriented is the president’s seemingly effortless high spirits. He’s in a good mood. There was the usual teasing, the partly aggressive, partly joshing humor, the certitude. He doesn’t seem to be suffering, which is jarring.

No big surprise there... it all kinda adds up, doesn't it?

Malaki (sp?) said today he could take or leave our help. Time to come home!

Sounds an awful lot like Adolph Hitler during the final days of _his war; being told just how great things were going. Historians now believe Adolph acquired his temper, early on from contracting a case of syphilis in his youth...but what is bush's excuse?

LibertyLover @ 4:

As Don Henley says: "you keep going in circles that just keep getting smaller... you wake up one morning, and half your ..." presidency is gone.

The problem is that many of our freedoms and democracy are gone, too.
http://myfightfordemocracy.blogspot.com/2007/07/new-declaration-of-indep...

LAWL.... Bush dismisses the question of troop numbers as "something which will be debated by historians" whose deliberations are impossible to inference at the present. While in other conferences he confidently asserts that history will judge him as the visionary leader of the 21st century.

Fuck I hate him & his blatant double standards. I hate Rush Limbaugh too who also has a lock on what historians will think. Surely Rush can't have that much security around him & is there not someone with the balls to shoot him?

15: Fuck that, I'm taking no risks. It's straight down to Wal-Mart to buy supplies. Might buy a terrorist panic room too.

It seems like that when daddy quit bailing Bush out of his failures he just turned things over to the unwilling U.S citizen to bail him out. We offer to kick him and Cheney out so someone with functioning brains can take over and he thinks that things can't get worse. He will just keep fucking it up. That will be his legacy.

nocore: Sounds like you've got a serious hard-on for this Clark fella. Why don't you marry him already??? jk, but seriously Bush is a like all geniuses - not recognised or appreciated in their time.

Eamon,

You damn well bet I do. I value wacky things like intellect and expertise and rightness.

Ever since Vietnam, Democrats have been completely ineffectual in American defense/national security discourse. Every four years, Democrats just roll over and hand the national security debate to the GOP. And right now, with three frontrunners who can make no credible claim to being national security candidates, we are primed to do it again.

Clark is so much more overwhelmingly qualified to be President of the United States than any of our current candidates, it verges on making the current crop look silly. He has greater stature, greater experience, and greater aptitude than anyone we've got running. Not that it's a horrible field. He's just that much more qualified.

Democrats would be squandering a historic opportunity to let someone like Wes Clark pass by.

Eamon @ 20:

nocore: Sounds like you've got a serious hard-on for this Clark fella. Why don't you marry him already??? jk, but seriously Bush is a like all geniuses - not recognised or appreciated in their time.

So someday the man who can't speak in complete sentences will seem like a genius? Exactly how many years/decades/centuries do you predict this will take?

My Pet Goat will someday become classic literature too, I suppose.

the walls of jericho were bigger and they came a tumbling down.

Eamon @ 14:

...he confidently asserts that history will judge him as the visionary leader of the 21st century.

If he believes that, then it's what I've always thought: the worst students of history are invariably the ones trying to find the biggest place in it.

listen to bush slurring his 's'-es...

anyone who has an alchoholic in the family should recognize that

Senators Wellstone & Kennedy cited Wes Clark's testimony to the House Armed Services Committee in 2002 (A debate against Richard Perle regarding invading Iraq) as a paramount reason they voted nay.

This piece by Dana Milbank revisits the first debate and highlights the second one, after the war started. note the arrogance of Perle.

-snip-

It was not always thus. At the September 2002 hearing, GOP lawmakers joined in Perle's dismissal of Clark's argument that "time is on our side" in Iraq and that force should be used only as a "last resort."

Perle said Clark was "wildly optimistic" and called it "one of the dumber cliches, frankly, to say that force must always be a last resort." While Clark fiddled, "Saddam Hussein is busy perfecting those weapons of mass destruction that he already has."

In retrospect, Clark's forecasts proved more accurate than Perle's, and even Republicans on the committee made little effort yesterday to defend Perle or to undermine Clark. The exception was Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), who pressed Clark to acknowledge that the Iraq invasion should get some credit for signs of democracy in the region.

"We've got to do a lot less crowing about the sunrise," Clark rejoined.

When Hunter's GOP colleagues didn't join his line of questioning, he took another turn grilling Clark. The chairman likened President Bush's Middle East policies to those of President Ronald Reagan in Eastern Europe.

"Reagan never invaded Eastern Europe," Clark retorted.

In another try, Hunter said Clark was "overstating" the risk in challenging other countries in the Middle East. Clark smiled and showed his trump card -- reminding Hunter of their exchange at the 2002 hearing. "I kept saying time was on our side," Clark said. "I could never quite satisfy you."

As for who proved correct, the general said, "I'll let the record speak for itself."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32440-2005Apr6.html

[...] Putin Link to Article wesley clark Wes Clark: The Wall Around George Bush » Posted at Crooks and [...]

That WALL is the Republican congress.

Bush was allowed to wiretap, to torture, whatever Bush wanted - the GOP Party let Bush do it - it DIDN"T even matter what conservative voters think - it only matters what Bush and Dick Cheney think.

OMG, at this point, debating or even listening to an ardent Bush-supporter is like listening arguing with someone that the earth is round vs. flat. I can't even do it. I believe in a diversity of opinions, but these people bring almost nothing to the table. I'll come right out and say, these people have some sort of intellectual or psychological deficiency, it isn't just a matter of different values. They are usually one of the following: unable to admit or acknowledge when they are wrong; stuck in defending a perception they acquired from parents, religious leaders, etc; or they are just not that smart.

the common denominator in everything George W Bush does is that it is allways someone elses fault.

Bush'll go down in history alright, with Vlad the Impaler, and Ivan the Terrible, and Hitler, and Mussolini, and Pol Pot. It ain't gonna be no George Washington crap.

Edwin @ 42:

Bush'll go down in history alright, with Vlad the Impaler, and Ivan the Terrible, and Hitler, and Mussolini, and Pol Pot. It ain't gonna be no George Washington crap.

No it wont and what is funny is that they will probably have to put razorwire up around his presidential library and that would be fitting.

Remember when Rumsfeld was caught auto penning letters of condolence to families of those killed in action?

The controversy arose when soldier-turned-writer David H. Hackworth penned a column on Nov. 22 reporting that two Pentagon-based colonels told him that Rumsfeld "has relinquished this sacred duty to a signature device rather than signing the sad documents himself." After checking with various families of the dead, Hackworth wrote that "one father bitterly commented that he thought it was a shame that the SecDef could keep his squash schedule but not find the time to sign his dead son's letter."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10891-2004Dec18.html

That's a far cry from Wes Clark, who also defended Cindy Sheehan.

In 1995, during the negotiation process, Clark and Holbrooke's diplomatic convoy was ambushed on a road by landmines and small arms fire, after Milosevic refused them safe passage. One of their vehicles crashed down a ravine and killed its passengers. Risking his life, Clark, then a 50 yr old man and 3-star general, rapelled down the ravine to search for survivors, admist enemy gunfire. He stayed with the burning vehicle until help arrived, saving the wedding band of a dead soldier to personally return it to the soldier's widow

And as you can well imagine, it was not a pretty sight.

General Franks gets thrown under the bus.

Anyone with the desire and time to listen, Clark spoke before the HASC Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee day before yesterday on:

A Third Way: Alternatives for Iraq’s Future (Part 1 of 3)

http://armedservices.house.gov/hearing_information.shtml

The man is freaking brilliant. He still has not said he won't run, and I am happy to wait. The current field of candidates (on both sides) leaves me frightened for our country's future.

Gawd dayum. This asshole has no problem throwing absolutely anyone under the bus does he. "Those are legitimate questions. And history will be the jusdge. And I asked those questions of Tommy Franks. Do you have enough troops to get the job done?"
What a gutless little prick

Wes is kicking ass on MSNBC

Doesh he have what it takesh to shucsheed? The man is drunk off his ass. Again.

a guy @ 52:

Gawd dayum. This asshole has no problem throwing absolutely anyone under the bus does he. "Those are legitimate questions. And history will be the jusdge. And I asked those questions of Tommy Franks. Do you have enough troops to get the job done?"
What a gutless little prick

Yep, noticed that. What a jerk. I notice that most of his vetoes and threatened vetoes are now preceded by the statement, " The President's advisors have (or will) advised him to veto this bill"...
Lol. Yeah. That should take the heat off. Now it's not him, it's his ADVISORS...

Bush says General Franks said he had enough troops. What about all the other generals who said more were needed? They were forced out. Just like King George cherry picked the intelligence to "justify" the war he cherry picked the military advice he listened to. God help us for the next year and a half.

When the facts (about Bush and the Iraq war) don't appear to make sense maybe what's missing are more facts. My take is we've entered the terrible era of resource wars - and they're not going away soon. We've gone from surrounding countries with gas and oil (with dozens of bases - since the end of the cold war) to occupying them. Oil is so critical to the US and the world that it simply can't be overestimated. My opinion is that without control of a big piece of oil we won't stay a super-power for long, there's nothing else propping us up except a military we can't continue to afford.

Bush's unrelenting resolve is a coping mechanism.

Some psychologists recently did a study on this. They interviewed people who caused emotional stress on others and interviewed people who were victims. The people who caused the distress felt they had just cause for their actions and most didn't have second thoughts and for the most part put it all behind them. Bullying for example. The victims on the other hand carried the emotional stress around alot longer.

What these psychologists have concluded was that Bush tends to make decisions without thinking about the impact it will have and as a coping mechanism defends his actions as rational and reasonable.

Those of us who are victims of his rationalizations can only sit around and go, "WTF?"

This is how he tends to leave office. With a clear conscience that he made the right decisions based on his principles. I wish there was some way to knock this guy off his power trip.

Did you all know he has been having secret meetings with historians and theologians to ask them how he will be viewed in history by future generations. Yes, he has been meeting with historians to discuss his legacy. Now how sick is that? I mean this guy is a legend in his on mind.

That this spoiled rich kid who has failed at everything he's done is our president makes me hurl chunks daily.
The only way righties don't do likewise suggests they are doped up like Rush.
Thanks Rush.
Thanks rich doped up c*nts.
Tory bastards.

[Tin foil hat too tight-Sitemonitor]

Fake opposition fools most of the people most of the time...

There SHOULD be a wall around Bush. And Cheney. Preferably reinforced Concrete, with maybe a small barred window, and a nice big barred wall opposite so the guards can peek in now and then as they make their rounds.

I encourgage everyone to read Glenn Greenwalds book "A Tragic Legacy". In a nut shell Glenn explains that because of GW's "faith" he is in fact delusional. He believes what he is doing is Good, therefore not matter how many laws he has to break, how many people he has to kill, it is essentially God's will.

He is seeking to expand his power and lessen the power of Congress. He is destroying our country. Pretty soon he'll probably declare martial law so he can be president forever. We live in very scary times my friends.

dot-connector @ 68:

Fake opposition fools most of the people most of the time...

Senator Feingold is a Rhodes Scholar too, now what do the conspiracy theorist make of that? Wes Clark has earned his stars by being a Soldier, Scholar, and Statesman.
I will not be fooled by fake opposition and that includes words coming from crack-pot conspiracy theorists on the net.

Tick tock, tick tock, Bush is running out the clock until his miserable failure of a presidency ends. Then the Democratic president will be stuck with all of the messes that he has created.

Bob Roberts @ 29:

Tom A. @ 17:

Clark: "He has done everything he can to wall himself off from what we believe is the truth."

It's not what we BELIEVE is the truth - it's what we all KNOW is the truth! Why on earth can't anyone on that boob tube ever say anything concrete and totally truthful?!?!
This all goes back to Bush not caring, not worrying......puppets don't need to care or worry, when someone else is really pulling the strings. Nero and his fiddle...redux.

You're nitpicking. The people who tend to announce that they have a monopoly on the truth are generally fundamentalists. There's nothing wrong with "what we believe is the truth." General Clark is just acknowledging that the situation is very complex with some inherent uncertainty.

This is a perfect example of why this country is in the mess it is in, not only militarily and politically. "some inherent uncertainty"......God help us with this mentality.

The "WALL around BUSH" is NOT impossible to dismantle. If Congress does not do it job by IMPEACHING the most rigid wall "CHENEY", then the people MUST break the STONEWALLING at the CONGRESS. "Off-the-Table" PELOSI and her co-conspirator, Harry Reid and Emanuel Rahm are circling hand-and-hand with a tight grip around the EXECESSIVE EXECUTIVE BRANCH from IMPEACHMENT.

WHY? They must ANSWER! Time to do the peoples job? THEY HAVE NOT ACCOMPLISHED any of that.......instead they gave the TYRANT more fuel to burn more of our TREASURY.

We have to BREAK this STONEWALLING---BUYING TIME tactics that is affording this administration from manipulating and destroying our constitution to expand their POWER.

It is a conspiracy! They are all in it for themselves.

If they succeed, the power of the PRESIDENT and EXECUTIVE BRANCH in the future will NO longer "in balance" with the JUDICIAL and LEGISLATIVE BRANCH. THEY would have succeeded in the mission to "EXPAND" the executive branch. This tug-o-war is ALREADY happening. And only the PEOPLE CAN BREAK this activities. Our GOVERNMENT is getting out of LINE. It is time to put them in their PLACE. AMERICA belongs to the FREE AMERICANS. AMERICA is the ONE that MUST dictate our government.....NOT the other WAY AROUND.

This GOVERNMENT with the help of those at the top of SUPER CORPORATION that is pulling their STRING is NOT doing its DUTY. They are traitors LIKE JUDAS was to JESUS.

The

A.Citizen @ 33:

Sorry Wes but Dear Leader is pressing on. He and his 'base' know in their hearts that he is:

'The Greatest Conservative President in American History.'

Of this there is no doubt. So Wes...
So what exactly is your definition of American conservatism?

Dictatorship?
Constatnt War?
Torture?
Totally subjugated populace?
Corporations running the country?
Only the top 1 % own all the wealth?

Nothing great about that.

If you can't clap louder please STFU!

I wish the media would make the leap and instead of asking Bush what he said to the Generals, ask Bush what CHENEY said to Generals.

James

Hahaha, okay, that made my day!