Politics: Home Run

Following up on Oliver's post of yesterday about George W. Bush looking in the mirror and seeing George Herbert Walker Bush's reflection, Maureen Dowd in today's New York Times hits the nail on the head, taking note of W's dwindling poll numbers and the factors that tripped up Bush the First's reelection.

One item Oliver failed to mention when he compared the two administrations that Dowd does include is both Bush's schizophrenic foreign policy. To wit:

It's equally hard to fathom the president's bipolar approach to nuclear threats. Yesterday he hurled new ultimatums at Saddam Hussein. "I'm sick and tired of games and deception," he said, even as he responded to Kim Jong Il's games and deception with pleas and promises to send food and oil to Pyongyang. There are inspectors in Iraq who are not finding nuclear weapons, while inspectors have been kicked out of North Korea, which has admitted to a nuclear weapons program.

So what's the message here? If Saddam had already developed nukes, we'd send him a fruit basket? But since he hasn't, we'll send him Tomahawk missiles. We know Saddam's weak, but we're pretending he's strong so America can walk tall by whupping him.

North Korea used its own version of our pre-emptive strike doctrine to blackmail us, and make the administration's global swaggering look suspiciously selective.

And where in the name of Rummy is Osama?

Read the whole thing. You'll be glad you did.