2000-2008 in brief

Dan Froomkin (White House Watch column, “Bush Just Makes It Worse,” WP, 10 Oct ’08)

Although Bush didn’t announce it this morning, there are signs that he will eventually sign off on a radical, but at least theoretically effective, next move—even though it violates his core political principles and is exactly the approach his administration rejected two weeks ago.

Shrub’s “core political principles” are, literally, (1) to oppose reality and (2) opposed to reality. His first approach is to try to impose his will on it; and, when that fails, his fallback is to see whatever set him back as “challenging” his “will” to believe. This is pretty much the exact opposite of science.