The Paradox of King George Bush

Here’s a question that has long puzzled me:

From everything we know about King George Bush, confirmed time and again during his five-year reign, he is a mediocrity of the first water. Detail averse, unable to think deeply, short attention span, and so on and so forth. Yet he still generates intense loyalty in people.

Why?

When Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly recently posed that question, some of the answers he received shed light on this apparent paradox. Herewith a sampling:

It's not like he's surrounded himself with people who are really all that much smarter than he is. These people have learned to never, ever bite the hand that feeds them.

The White House is like a frat house. Bush is the older frat boy and his advisers follow his lead, because in their eyes, he's cool. One day they'll leave and look back wondering why the hell they let that dimwit give them wedgies all the damn time. Until then, we all suffer.

Our presidents are human beings, not gods. Most have had incredible quirks and failings of a myriad sort. Bush is no different than the others.

You know the saying: First-rate leaders hire first-rate staffs; second-rate leaders hire third-rate staffs.

Is it precisely because Bush is such an empty vessel of a man, such a blank slate, that his supporters can ascribe whatever virtues they desire onto him?

Is it because he has no real stable personality of his own that his sycophants can see whatever they want to in him?

There have been a number of former Bush officials who have trashed the president after leaving from Paul O'Neil and Richard Clarke to Andrew Natios recently. For some reason these people drop down the memory hole and the MSM goes back to the "fiercely loyal" meme.

I hate to always bring up Nixon, but what choice does this administration give me? The Nixon White House was staffed by people who throve on a siege mentality. A shared, insane ideology and the slobbering pursuit of wealth and power may be what brought the Bush inner circle together, but dehumanizing all political and civic opponents is what cements it. They want a constant state of war, both outside and inside the country.

I know that Bush hails from a powerful dynasty, but I think the man is so obviously mediocre and untalented that there's a very strong element of underdog worship in the phenomenon of Dubya loyalty.

It must tickle someone like Karl Rove -- surely a geek who was picked on mercilessly in high school or a loser who could never get a date with the hot cheerleader -- silly pink to be able to watch his boss best all them high achieving Ivy League types who populate liberal circles. Bush is a proxy for a lot of conservative anger at our powerful liberal culture and the accompanying desire for revenge.

It's a mystery we've been trying to solve for ages, from little Corsican corporals, to Austrian paperhangers, to Cuban baseball rejects. The cult of personality is a powerful thing . . . Rationality goes out the window when you're blinded by fear. Fear of the black man, fear of the empowered woman, fear of the empowered poor, fear of the Muslim . . .

Life is full of ironies. The Chinese Communist Party leads the fastest growing, least ethical, Capitalist country. A C-student leads some of the smartest neo-cons around. And Bill Clinton, who bonks younger women in affairs and uses them as ashtrays, is still one of the most popular figures with American women.

And finally, these two responses:

Just remember, Abraham Lincoln failed at every job he had before he was President. Those who are afraid to fail never succeed. I knew Abraham Lincoln.

I worked with Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln was a friend of mine. And George W. Bush, sir, is no Abraham Lincoln.