Agreement

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Normally I don’t bother linking the NYT editorials (columns, yes; editorials, no), but today they got my attention.
On Mr. Bush’s admission during his interview on Fox the other night:

But it is worrisome when one of the most incurious men ever to occupy the White House takes pains to insist that he gets his information on what the world is saying only in predigested bits from his appointees.

On the idea floating around Congress to collateralize some of the $87B the Administration wants for Iraq:

It sounds more like a punitive Versailles-style approach to the vanquished, instead of the Marshall Plan for the Middle East that the White House keeps promising.

Right on both counts. It’s incredible to think that the President of the United States gets his information in Reader’s Digest format from people who work for him; that’s a sure-fire way to get conflicting opinions. And we all know what happened to the Weimar Republic due in part to the reparations requirements laid down by the Treaty of Versailles, right?

5 Comments

  1. Isn’t it great to have a president that doesn’t bother to read the paper?
    Wheeee!
    Meanwhile are you ok? I heard something about a tsunami that might be heading near you….

  2. Oh, fine. I have to hear about a tsunami from someone in California, for cryin’ out loud.
    From weather.com: “THE TSUNAMI WARNING IS CANCELLED.”
    Phew. Even though I’m two miles inland and 500 feet above sea level. Thank you, batty.

  3. If you read the actual interview, it’s clear that what Dubya said was that he gets his news from the people whose job it is to brief the President. I don’t understand why this troubles you. You want Dubya to get his news from running through a blogroll?
    Tell me exactly why it’s better to read the New York Times speculation about what the CIA has just found out in Iran than it is to read the Director of Central Intelligence’s confirmation of what the CIA has just found out in Iran.
    This is about the stupidest criticism of Bush yet. Dear lord, you’d RATHER that he get his news from RATHER?

  4. Well, Beldar, I’d feel more confident if I thought he was getting some news from people who weren’t paid by his office and thus inclined to agree with him.
    And getting some news from the networks might get him out of that little cocoon that Presidents live in, too. As I recall, LBJ had four or five television sets on to get a feel for how news was presented; I suspect most Presidents picked up a newspaper occasionally too, which this one seems not to do, except to read the sports page.

  5. You’d rather Dubya watch Rather?

    The New York Times, Slate, and blogger Linkmeister are all stunned to learn that Dubya relies on staff to provide him with information. They’d rather he rely on Rather, or on them, I guess.

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