Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Dubya: Evil Doofus, Nice Tough Guy, or Something Else

John Podhoretz understands President Bush like few others. His book, Bush Country : How Dubya Became a Great President While Driving Liberals Insane, is a must-read. Today in the NY Post he asked whether Bush is a combination of a doofus and an evil genius (as the liberals suggest) or a nice, principled, love-thy-neighbor-as-thyself tough guy (as the conservatives think). Podhoretz admiringly suggests an alternative: elegant and ruthless. In other words, "a smoothie — someone who achieves his political aims with elegance that's all the more shocking because there's nothing especially elegant or smooth in his manner." Read the whole thing.