George W. Bush’s insecurity and aversion to doubt—“the psychological traits of an asphyxiated and pampered son”—led to his botched presidency, Maureen Dowd writes in the New York Times. Rather than being a source of presidential insight on Iraq and Saddam, Bush’s father was relegated “to the status of a blankie,” providing needed emotional support while Junior spent eight years “trashing the Constitution, the economy, and the environment.”
Bush still sees the world in simplistic terms of good vs. evil, but “a moral analysis cannot be a simplistic analysis.” While Bush hated questioning, however, our next president “is delighted by doubt,” Dowd writes. “Bush fancied himself the Decider; Obama fancies himself the Convener.” While that could “turn the Situation Room into the Seminar Room,” at the moment, “it’s a huge relief to be getting an inquisitive, complicated mind in the White House.”
(More George W. Bush stories.)
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