Same Planet?

Sometimes I wonder whether nice-guy cat-fancier Kevin Drum and the rest of us of the left share the same planet. When speaking of Bush's time-delayed "fart" of a speech yesterday Drum states:

These are not the actions of a president in touch with the country — especially a president who usually excels at reacting to tragedies like this.

When the fuck has this ever been the case?

On 9/11 he sat there reading "The Pet Goat" for seven minutes...just sat there. Then he took off on the great running away, where he and Air Force One just flew around and around and around. It took several days before, in what ironically is the high-point of his presidency, Bush climbed on top of a pile of rubble his inattention had helped cause, and said he'd get us "revenge" via bullhorn.

I don't think it's a stretch to guess that any of his 42 predecessors, including Franklin "glug" Pierce and James "Cockedneck" Buchanan, could have done as well.

Let us not forget the manner in which after he announced the start of the war he was salivating for in Iraq by saying "it feels good". Feels really FUCKING good for the rest of us doesn't it Georgie?

How about last December when for a long-stretch he said not one fucking word about the Tsunami in South Asia, only to then promise $5, no $12, no $15, no $35, no $100 million dollars over the course of a week. He relied on Clinton and his father to bail his ass out.

And then finally, as Katrina bore down on New Orleans he stayed mute at Rancho de Coo-Coo Bananas. When Katrina hit he flew off to eat Birthday Cake and tongue-dance with John McCain, followed by speechifyin' about his prescription drug boondoggle. Later he finally spoke about Katrina for a few seconds, devoting the rest of his talk to the wretched document some say is a Constitution for Iraq. And then as the levies burst and hundreds, perhaps thousands, drowned he continued his keepin' easy tour, playing the gee-tar and talking about the end of the Second World War.

Finally, yesterday he ended his 35 day vacation at day 33 -- oh fuck me Lord what a sacrifice. He showed his concern by "buzzing" New Orleans at 1,700 feet. Perhaps low enough to, literally as well as figuratively, allow the City to see him flip them 'the bird'. And then the speech that, if nothing else, demonstrated he was pissed off that a disaster ruined his last couple days of brush clearing and Barney snuggling.

How one can call his past track record much different than recent events is beyond me. It's just the latest and lowest of a long string of paralysis, fraud and petulance.