The Anchoress has a great post about the press trying to do to Bush what it did to Nixon. In particular is Newsweek’s patently absurd, on the brink of insane, assertion that Bush is mentally ill because he dares to think the new strategy in Iraq is taking hold and could work. What is Sharon Begley‘s argument that Bush lives in a perpetual state of denial? When he was seven years old, he tried to comfort his mother after his little sister died from leukemia and the fact that at one time he drank too much alcohol:
Bush could, of course, know full well that the United States cannot achieve its goals in Iraq. If so, then he is lying not to himself but to us (for reasons scientists would have a field day with, but that’s another story). But while it’s always risky to psychoanalyze a politician from afar, a few things in his past are consistent with the capacity for denial. When he was 7, his baby sister died of leukemia. Bush, while certainly not denying her death, tried to cheer up his grieving mother, saying everything would be OK. Also, those who abuse alcohol, as Bush has admitted doing, typically need to see the world in black and white in order to stay on the wagon. “It’s how they control their addiction,” says Sulkowicz. “It reflects an inability or refusal to see shades of gray.”
What quackery. Not only is Bush’s attempts to comfort his broken-hearted mother not a sign of anything remotely close to mental illness, but I’d say reaching for straws in a ridiculous attempt to color that event as a sign of mental illness is a sure sign that Ms. Begley needs to make an appointment with a psychiatrist. It’s obvious that she hates President Bush so much that she’s the one who’s seeing things that aren’t there.
Be sure to read all of Anchoress‘ post.
