Bush is well worth studying, just like Nero, cholera, and rape

* kleiman:

"Of course, no one denies that George W. Bush is well worth studying, just as Nero, cholera, and rape are well worth studying. But equally of course the George. W. Bush Presidential Library will not study George W. Bush from some sort of neutral perspective. It will be a $200 million dollar monument and propaganda mill, with the money put up by the likes of Richard Mellon Scaife and by the corporate beneficiaries of Mr. Bush's crony capitalism and (upper) class warfare."

* arkin:

"Shouldn't it be clear by now that the "credentials" aren't the presidency? Ronald Reagan, who had half the intellect of George W - if that's even possible - also had a fabulous feel for people and the world environment. He was a people person. Contrast that with George Bush the younger: When says he looks into someone's soul, he is thinking OK Corral and not life as we know it.

So is Barack Obama going to win the presidency because he bones up, acquires the requisite stable of experts, and demonstrates his martial spirit?

Not if he follows his Reagan-like intuition. Against a McCain or even a Hillary, Obama isn't going to demonstrate that he knows more or should be given a shot when it comes to his platform. It IS going to be his ideas.

On Iraq, Obama has done the right thing and has almost even said all of the right things."

* juan cole (on the obama/madrass smear):

"The real question is why foreign billionaire cultists own so much of America's media. Lou Dobbs, who is so concerned about illegal immigration, should leave the poor alone long enough to look into the rich and influential, rightwing aliens. This smear was brought to us by the media owned by the Reverend Moon (who did jail time for tax evasion) and by Rupert Murdoch (which picked it up shamelessly). Americans will never get back their purloined liberty until they stop letting the super-rich tell them what to think."

* emptywheel, quoting Wells:

"Mr. Libby was known in the office as having a bad memory. He did not have a good memory." WOW. [The media room erupts in disbelief] "

* superteemu:

"On two separate occasions today, some apolitical co-workers brought up the Qantas thing. I guess the blame didn't hit exactly right target, as the follow-up comments were along the lines of "yeah, that Bush guy is totally nuts."

I'm not sure if I should be sad; "sure, you can take away my habeas corpus rights, but try to take away this shirt and we'll revolt!""

that's the ticket!

* kleiman:

"Now that (1) Scooter Libby's defense team plans to blame everything and Karl Rove, and (2) Patrick Fitzgerald has revealed that poor, confused Scooter Libby was so busy fighting the global battle to save civilization that he shredded notes from his conversations with Cheney (conversations in which Cheney told Libby precisely how to run the counteroffensive against Joseph Wilson) before the FBI could get to them, can we expect apologies from all the right-wing flacks, pundits, and bloggers who (1) made fun of the notion that the top people around GWB had outed a CIA NOC and were lying about it and (2) accused Fitzgerald of making politically motivated baseless charges against an utterly innocent man?"