Bush in the Bubble
Here are a couple of good pieces about Bush’s practice of avoiding contact with reality, and how it might be problematic for tonight’s town hall-style debate in particular, and for the outcome of his policies (like, his Iraq policies) in general.
First up, from the WaPo’s Mike Allen: Bush’s isolation from reporters could be a hindrance.
Bush has held 15 solo news conferences since taking office. At the same point in their presidencies, according to research by Martha Joynt Kumar of Towson University in Maryland, Bill Clinton had held 42; George H.W. Bush, 83; Ronald Reagan, 26; Jimmy Carter, 59; Gerald R. Ford, 39; Richard M. Nixon, 29; Lyndon B. Johnson, 88; John F. Kennedy, 65; and Dwight D. Eisenhower, 94.
Second, from Paul Krugman: Ignorance isn’t strength.
As a political strategy, reality control has worked very well. But as a strategy for governing, it has led to predictable disaster. When leaders live in an invented reality, they do a bad job of dealing with real reality.
