Decider-in-Chief!

The Bush boy is struggling

Dick Feagler

The Plain Dealer

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

As presidents go, George W. Bush has been a disaster. Compared to him, Nixon and Harding look like George Washington.

Bush's father was a decent man. But the son doesn't talk to his father.

Wouldn't you think that if you had a father who had been president of the country, you turn to him for some advice? I sure would.

This George doesn't.

His old man ran a clear, surgical war against Iraq. When it was over, Iraq was pinned down. Certainly no threat to our nation.

But then his kid got the job. Maybe he wanted to outdo his old man.

Maybe it had been that way all his life. Trying to outdo the old man. He was, after all, a rich kid. He was a plugged-in kid in the lap of largess. He was, for a while, a playboy. Then he got a baseball team to run, and then he got to be Texas governor. And then, president. Wow!

Famous kids of famous fathers seldom work out well. They either fade into the woodwork and cringe or they try to upstage their heritage, with bad results. And often, if they can't find a comfortable neo-dad, they seek out surrogate fathers.

I think our president did that. I think he wanted Cheney and Rumsfeld to be papa to him. And give him guidance.

In other words, I don't think he has an original thought in his head.

Had he one, we never would have gone into Iraq. Afghanistan maybe; Iraq, certainly not.

I think our president did what his new daddies told him to do. They had an agenda, he had none. His crib toy was a button to press. Press the button and thousands of widgets fly around the world and kill people and are killed in return.

And when the rest of us take losses, it's a bad day. Just like a Rangers loss at the ballpark. "Hey! We'll get 'em next time."

Now the polls have plummeted. Everybody is bailing out. Even the conservatives are jumping ship. Bush, who has no ideas, can't embrace their ideas. And the Democrats, who have no game plan, are circling like timid sharks in the water, waiting for a kill to feed on.

This week, the Bushies hired a new chief of staff -- a meaningless gesture. Everybody knows that Cheney, as long as he's in there, is the co-president. Who's left? A Yale grad who has some trouble with the language.

Six retired generals spoke out against the way that whoever is running this war is running it. These generals are not chopped liver. One ran the 1st Infantry Division, the "Big Red One" that fought in Normandy. Another ran the 82nd Airborne. These are elite units, and elite generals commanded them.

My experience with generals has been, happily, slight. But the generals I knew never opened their mouths to criticize a war unless they felt conscience-stricken to do so. They normally share their opinions only over very good Scotch at the Army-Navy Club.

The mere fact that they have spoken speaks volumes. The fact that they have spoken out against Rumsfeld means that their brother officers, mute because they are still in service, share their view.

And the fact that the president has not fired Rumsfeld means simply that without Rumsfeld, he wouldn't know what to do.

He is inept. And we pay the price. If I had a guess, I'd guess his old man would have said to dump Rumsfeld.

But you know how kids are. Stubborn. They can screw up a family. But a whole nation? Guess so.

"Im the decider!"