Appease of Crap

I’m inclined to agree with Sonny’s cut-the-hurt-feelings-and-campaign take on the hot story of the day. I don’t think Bush was talking about Obama. I really could care less whether Bush was talking about Obama, because the inanity and tiresomeness of Bush’s remarks are equally profound whether he was thinking overtly about Obama or thinking covertly about how to safely consume a pretzel. I could parse what a foolish and elementary error it is to lump terrorists and “radicals” into a single group, much less one you’re not supposed to talk to, but will this really accomplish anything? Or will it cause one side of this debate to say “terrorism is so bad we can afford to treat ‘radicals’ as if they were already terrorists,” and the other side to say “Mommy, Bush is othering me again” — ? Obama’s remarks may make for wrongheaded policy — I happen to think that in some instances they do and in some they don’t — but Bush’s remarks typify the clumsy, overgeneralized, harping, dull, and rote approach to democratization that has made his administration such a sustained failure. Given that he has the best material in human history to work with — political liberty as God’s gift to Man — that’s quite a feat.

(Photo courtesy of Flickr user and presumptive Obama voter Tal Bright.)