George W. Bush: Presidential or Pathological?

[Guest guest]

> Wed, 14 Jul 2004 15:19:08 -0400

> George W. Bush: Presidential or

> Pathological?

 

> " Arianna Huffington "

> <arianna

>

> " An amazing thing happened in the presidential

> contest of 2004: For the

> first time in my life, maybe the first time in

> history, a candidate lost

> but his campaign won. "

>

> That's from Joe Trippi's just-released book, " The

> Revolution Will Not Be

> Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the

> Overthrow of Everything. " Much

> has been written about how the Dean campaign

> catalyzed a major grassroots

> movement in our country, which in turn lit a long

> overdue wake-up

> firecracker under the Democratic party and under

> American politics. Joe

> Trippi's book (www.joetrippi.com) captures the

> passion of that moment in

> history and looks ahead to its continuing impact. I

> just finished reading

> it and I highly recommend it.

>

>

>

> ---------------------

>

>

>

> GEORGE W. BUSH: PRESIDENTIAL OR PATHOLOGICAL?

>

> By Arianna Huffington

>

> That is the highly provocative question being asked

> in " Bush on the

> Couch, " a new book in which psychoanalyst and George

> Washington University

> professor Dr. Justin Frank uses the president's

> public pronouncements and

> behavior, along with biographical data, to craft a

> comprehensive

> psychological profile of Bush 43.

>

> It's not a pretty picture, but it goes a long way in

> explaining how

> exactly our country got itself into the mess we are

> in: an intractable

> war, the loss of allies and international goodwill,

> a half-trillion-dollar

> deficit.

>

> Poking around in the presidential psyche, Frank

> uncovers a man suffering

> from megalomania, paranoia, a false sense of

> omnipotence, an inability to

> manage his emotions, a lifelong need to defy

> authority, an unresolved

> love-hate relationship with his father, and the

> repercussions of a history

> of untreated alcohol abuse.

>

> Other than that, George Bush is the picture of

> psychological health.

>

> One of the more compelling sections of the book is

> Frank's dissection of

> what he calls Bush's " almost pathological aversion

> to owning up to his

> infractions " — a mindset common to individuals Freud

> termed " the

> Exceptions, " those who feel " entitled to live

> outside the limitations that

> apply to ordinary people. "

>

> Limitations like, for instance, not driving while

> drunk. Or the limitation

> of having to report for required Air National Guard

> duty. Or the

> limitation of having to adhere to international law.

>

> And it doesn't help one outgrow this sense of

> entitlement when Daddy and

> his pals are always there to rescue you when you get

> in trouble — whether

> it's keeping you out of Vietnam by bumping you to

> the top of the National

> Guard waiting list or bailing you out of lousy

> business deals with cushy

> seats on corporate boards or making sure the votes

> in Florida (just

> another limitation) aren't properly counted.

>

> But you don't make it as far as W. has without some

> psychological defenses

> of your own — especially when it comes to insulating

> yourself against your

> own fears and insecurities.

>

> Raised in a family steeped in privilege and secrecy,

> and prone to the

> intense aversion to introspection and denial of

> responsibility that are

> the hallmarks of a so-called dry drunk — one who has

> kicked the bottle

> without dealing with the root causes of the

> addiction — Bush has become a

> master of the psychological jiu-jitsu known as

> Freudian Projection.

>

> For those of you who bailed on Psych 101, Freudian

> Projection is,

> according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual

> of Mental Disorders, a

> defense mechanism in which " the individual deals

> with emotional conflict

> or internal or external stressors by falsely

> attributing to another his or

> her own unacceptable feelings, impulses or

> thoughts. "

>

> In layman's terms, it's the soot-stained pot calling

> the kettle " black. "

>

> On the 2004 campaign trail, it’s the pathologically

> inconsistent Bush

> attempting to portray John Kerry as a two-faced

> flip-flopper.

>

> It's become the Bush-Cheney campaign mantra. GOP

> talking points 1 through

> 100. The president's go-to laugh and applause line:

>

> " Senator Kerry has been in Washington long enough to

> take both sides on

> just about every issue, " chided Bush at a spring

> fundraiser. " My opponent

> clearly has strong beliefs, they just don't last

> very long. " Ba-da-bum!

> (Incidentally, how is this consistent with Bush's

> other contention, that

> Kerry is a rock-ribbed liberal?)

>

> Or as Dick " Not Peaches and Cream " Cheney ominously

> put it at a Republican

> fundraiser: " These are not times for leaders who

> shift with the political

> winds, saying one thing one day and another the

> next. "

>

> I couldn't f---ing agree more, Mr. Cheney. But it's

> your man George W. who

> can't seem to pick a position and stick to it. He's

> reversed course more

> times than Capt. Kirk battling Khan in the midst of

> the Mutara Nebula.

> Gone back on his word more times than > Blundetto. Flip-flopped more

> frequently than a blind gymnast with an inner-ear

> infection.

>

> The list of Bush major policy U-turns is as

> audacious as it is long. Among

> the whiplash-inducing lowlights:

>

> In September 2001, Bush said capturing bin Laden was

> " our number one

> priority. " By March 2002, he was claiming, " I don't

> know where he is. I

> have no idea and I really don't care. It's not that

> important. "

>

> In October 2001, he was dead-set against the need

> for a Department of

> Homeland Security. Seven months later, he thought it

> was a great idea.

>

> In May 2002, he opposed the creation of the 9/11

> Commission. Four months

> later, he supported it.

>

> During the 2000 campaign, he said that gay marriage

> was a states' rights

> issue: " The states can do what they want to do. "

> During the 2004 campaign,

> he called for a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

>

> Dizzy yet? No? OK:

>

> Bush supported CO2 caps, then opposed them. He

> opposed trade tariffs, then

> he didn't. Then he did again. He was against nation

> building, then he was

> OK with it. We'd found WMD, then we hadn't. Saddam

> was linked to Osama,

> then he wasn't. Then he was … sorta. Chalabi was in,

> then he was out. Way

> out.

>

> In fact, Bush's entire Iraq misadventure has been

> one big costly, deadly

> flip-flop:

>

> We didn't need more troops, then we did. We didn't

> need more money, then

> we did. Preemption was a great idea — on to Syria,

> Iran and North Korea!

> Then it wasn't — hello, diplomacy! Baathists were

> the bad guys, then

> Baathists were our buds. We didn't need the U.N.,

> then we did.

>

> And all this from a man who, once upon a time, made

> " credibility " a key to

> his appeal.

>

> Now, God knows, I have no problem with changing your

> mind — so long as you

> admit that you have and can explain why. But Bush

> steadfastly — almost

> comically — refuses to admit that there's been a

> change, even when the

> entire world can plainly see otherwise. He's got his

> story and he's

> sticking to it. But that darn Kerry, he keeps

> shifting his positions!

>

> At the end of his analysis, Dr. Frank offers the

> following prescription:

> " Having seen the depth and range of President Bush's

> psychological flaws …

> our sole treatment option — for his benefit and for

> ours — is to remove

> President Bush from office. "

>

> You don't need to be a psychiatrist to heartily

> second that opinion.

>

> © 2004 ARIANNA HUFFINGTON.

> www.fanaticsandfools.org

> DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

>