Quote:
Originally posted by Gattigap
Jesus Christ, is that a depressing article.
For the DEMs here, I'm sure that this article buttresses the feelings and anxieties already held about Bush.
For the GOPers, I'm curious.
* Do you believe the themes mentioned in the article to be accurate? If not, why?
* If you do, do you consider them unimportant? Of not, why?
* If you do, how do you hope to resolve the situation in the event of a Bush victory? Won't a victory simply tell the Bushies that they were right all along, and embolden them further on their domestic agenda?
If you favor the more moderate, fiscal-conservative wing of the GOP, how do you anticipate them "winning" the intraparty civil war that others are predicting? Accumulating evidence suggests that any appeals to the WH to listen to, or explain, inconvenient facts will be less than successful.
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1). I think the themes are probably accurate to a point - W is clearly decisive, brusque, faith-and-gut-driven, secretive - but I suspect that Suskind has spun them far beyond where they stop. I can see a more sympathetic author spinning those same themes in a very appealing way.
2). I consider the bases of W's personality important, of course. As to Suskind's interpretations of those bases, I have to put them into context of who Suskind is, what he's written in the past, who he's quoting (and who he's NOT quoting - he's got an awful lot of unattributed comments in there that we're just supposed to accept, and the information I'm hearing is that some of them, at least, are VERY questionable), and how he's spun what people did say. (Bartlett has come out and said that Suskind has taken, not an interview situation, but three or four months of conversations, and left out all of the moderating things Bartlett said that accompanied the stuff Suskind chose to quote that should have left a much less harsh impression.)
So, I consider Suskind's conclusions to be more than a bit suspect.
3). I see little evidence that the main fears suggested by Suskind would be a problem. I think he simply builds a caricature out of themes and traits that we all know about already. Bush ain't the most introspective, coalition-building guy in the world. Surprise.
