Rodney

He's doomed, that's what I think of him. Without making any other value judgment, that's what I think after last night's press conference.

I am involved in an nonprofit organization that hired a new executive a couple of years; this organization consists largely of volunteers, many of whom also support the organization with donations. The new exec consulted no one in the wider organization on decisions; made up her mind on her own, proceeded unilaterally, and never reconsidered. I asked her if she ever had doubts or uncertainty, and she said no.

Well, after she pretty much ran the organization into the ground, we booted her out of there, not without a lot of bitterness. And she hates our guts, because in her mind she was doing the right thing. Because if anything went wrong, it was somebody else's fault, not hers. The rest of us eventually saw reality when the money stopped coming in and key people started quitting, but she never did.

Anyway, I saw Bush making the same moves last night. He thinks he's showing strength by doing so, but he's really showing weakness. He could not admit to a mistake, could not name something he could have done better, saw no reason to say he was sorry about anything. Now that's a man wrapped up in fear, not strength -- a strong man can admit mistakes and grow by them. And however you feel about Bush and Iraq, you must admit that mistake were made. People are only human -- kind of redundant statement, but it needs to be said.

Bush couldn't say he was sorry about September 11. You might ask, what does he need to be sorry about? Well, that it happened. That the government wasn't on top of it. That the whole apparatus of government wasn't somehow better. Doesn't matter what happened under whose watch, he was the guy in charge when it happened. And if he _had_ apologized -- nobody in power has done so -- it would have been a massive catharsis that would have helped a lot of people feel better, _and_ it would have increased his popularity, at least short-term. He thinks that taking responsibility and making the apology shows weakness, but it actually would demonstrate strength -- maybe not to the Beltway pundits who are in a world of their own, but to the great majority of Americans who still think that strength and the willingness to be humble in combination are an American core value.

But he didn't apologize, and didn't admit error in any way. Assuming that he actually believes that, combine that attitude with a volatile situation and you've got a train wreck coming -- in Iraq, maybe even in the economy. The only question is when.