Bubble Boy

What's that Chinese curse again? Oh, yeah: "May you live in interesting times." Someday historians are really going to have a blast with the eight years of George II. Of course, Bush has his own views on how history will judge him: "History, we don't know. We'll all be dead."

Of course, history abhors a paradox, but we've got plenty to choose from these days. Bush encapsulates two very common traits for powerful leaders and dictators: a willingness to throw weight around and an inability to tolerate any opposing points of view. Strength and weakness. Stalin had his gulags, Saddam his torture rooms, and Bush has his "town meeting." Dan Froomkin has a short but interesting piece today about the town meetings, illuminating both how insecure Bush is with any idea less abstract than freedom and his lack of qualms about using the dwindling tax payer buck to spread his "message."