From Richard Cohen’s column in the Post:
Alchemy is the purported science of turning base metals into gold. It does not exist. Political alchemy is the ability to turn hard failures into gossamer triumphs. It does exist. The inauguration of George W. Bush for a second term proves it.
The president, of course, does not see it that way. He proclaims himself at the top of his game: ruler of the free world, liberator of Iraq and magnificent chief of the Grand Old Party. Most important, to him, is that his view is shared by the American people. His reelection was no mere mandate since, you will recall, he claimed that the last time, when he scratched out a win in Florida by a few hundred votes. No, this victory is a mandate of Rooseveltian dimensions.
In reality, Bush’s view of the American people is not shared by the American people. In fact, a recent Post-ABC News poll found Bush with what you might call a negative mandate. Only 45 percent said they wanted the country to go in the direction Bush wanted. And on Iraq — the No. 1 issue for most — 58 percent disapproved of the way he’s handled what to him is a grand triumph. The 60-day war is now in its second year, and the chorus of those urging a pullout grows louder and louder.
The war in Iraq is in fact a debacle, yet Bush talks about it as if it is going swimmingly.
… The disjunction between Bush’s performance and his demeanor is shared by much of Washington. The town is now in a celebratory mood, though precisely what is being celebrated is impossible to tell. As for Congress, it, too, has inhaled vapors of some kind. The Senate is expected shortly to confirm all of Bush’s new Cabinet appointments, pleased as it can be that Alberto Gonzales probably won’t tolerate torture anywhere within the Beltway and Condi Rice will, as Joe Biden instructed, determine just how many Iraqi troops have been trained — a comforting 120,000, as she asserted, or a disquieting 4,000, as Biden had been told. Possibly the missing 116,000 are now guarding weapons of mass destruction in the Iraqi province of Oz.
I just don’t understand the ability of human beings to delude themselves into believing what is so transparently false.
Oh, wait — this could explain the high incidence of religious nutcases in the conservative cabal.
