Worse Than Animal House

Maureen Dowd on Bush's G8 performance:

No matter what the trappings or the ceremonies require of the leader of the free world, he brings the same DKE diction, bearing and cadences, the same insouciance and smart-alecky attitude, the same simplistic approach - swearing, swaggering, talking to Tony Blair with his mouth full of buttered roll, and giving a startled Angela Merkel an impromptu shoulder rub. He can make even a global summit meeting seem like a kegger.

Catching W. off-guard, the really weird thing is his sense of victimization. He's strangely resentful about the actual core of his job. Even after the debacles of Iraq and Katrina, he continues to treat the presidency as a colossal interference with his desire to mountain bike and clear brush.

Unlike MoDo, I don't think Bush's G8 antics were mere Animal House high jinks that can be corrected if he would only shape up and get serious. I think he is incapable of shaping up and getting serious.

Bush acts out of an inflated sense of entitlement, expecting to get what he wants without the hindrance of protocol or rationale. Behind the false bravado is a man who is intellectually and emotionally inadequate to meet the demands of leadership, especially as President of the United States. It's a dangerous inadequacy, especially in these trying times.

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