Not necessarily. George Bush's mad-dictator face these days makes the jaw-jutting Mussolini look as beneficent as, well, the Dalai Lama. The WashPo's Dan Froomkin characterized Bush's performance at his press conference yesterday as "defensive." As Froomkin wrote: "Asked how he found himself vetoing a children's health insurance bill that had passed Congress with bipartisan support, Bush insisted that using a veto is 'one way to ensure I am relevant.' When a reporter followed up and asked Bush if he felt he was losing leverage and relevance, Bush replied: 'I've never felt more engaged and more capable of getting the American people to realize there's a lot of unfinished business.' Which, let's be blunt, is hard to believe."
But why is that hard to believe? Bush's strutting, sneering behavior during that press conference was the most combative performance by a president I've ever seen. Bush's message was unmistakable: "I don't give a shit how low my poll numbers get. I still have many months in office. If I feel like it, I'll use my veto power to fuck over every widow and orphan in the land. If I feel like it, I'll use my power as commander-in-chief to bomb Iran back to the Stone Age. If I feel like it, I'll do any damn thing I want, and no one -- not the public, the press, Congress, or allied or enemy nations can anything to stop me. You can all screw yourselves."
*That* was Bush's clear message yesterday in both words and body language. Bush presents the ugliest public face of any US president in history. And it seems work just fine for him.
Carl