OK, that last part's untrue. But in any case, check out these two recent stories about Bush.

First, This one from April 30:

"...some big money players up from Texas recently paid a visit to their friend in the White House. The story goes that they got out exactly one question, and the rest of the meeting consisted of The President in an extended whine, a rant, actually, about no one understands him, the critics are all messed up, if only people would see what he’s doing things would be OK…etc., etc. This is called a “bunker mentality” and it’s not attractive when a friend does it. When the friend is the President of the United States, it can be downright dangerous. Apparently the Texas friends were suitably appalled, hence the story now in circulation."

And then this one from yesterday's Dallas Morning News:

"Friends of his from Texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated "I am the president!" He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of "our country's destiny."

That last one is particularly bad. The President has clearly gone 'round the bend. At the very least, this bears obvious comparisons to the last days of Nixon, and that dark story of Nixon and Kissinger on their knees in the Oval Office, praying and weeping in the early hours of the morning. At worst, this bears comparisons to the aforementioned tiny-moustached dictator. In all three cases, it's about that bunker mentality that was mentioned after the first deranged outburst by the President.

And in any case, it shows that, moreso than ever, the President is unwilling to listen to anything even approximating an opposing viewpoint. As for the Big Dumb of Iraq, we are swiftly reaching a crossroads at which we'll have two options: Get out or institute a draft. Hell, that should be the talking point for whatever Democratic presidential candidate wants to get to the White House in 2008: "We've asked so much of our military, and now, they're stretched to the breaking point. In some cases, they've moved well beyond it. Our military was never designed to pacify a nation of 25 million people. The numbers simply aren't there. And so, I don't believe we can any longer asked our soldiers, our young men and women whose patriotism and sense of honor we cherish so well. Therefore, it comes to this: Either we get out of Iraq now, or we get enough men and women in the field to successfully complete the mission. And that means a draft. Personally, I'd rather not see that. And so, it falls on us to bring our troops home as soon as possible."

See that? It puts the troop-hating onus back on the people who want them to stay out in the field on an impossible mission. Neat, huh?

By the way, to whichever Democratic candidate uses this: When you win, I'd like the ambassadorship to a European country. I'd prefer Ireland, but if you want to give me a smaller country, I'll take Andorra. Thanks.