From the standpoint of domestic politics, George W. Bush's current trajectory is baffling. The pol with the killer instinct appears not only to be committing slow-mo political suicide, but to be digging the grave ever deeper and wider to accommodate other Republicans.

A president who once fancied himself bold seems timid. Look at Iraq, and the "surge." If you are truly going to "double down," why do it with an obviously weak hand?

This isn't a mystery - it's of a piece with what we've seen before, maybe its apotheosis: an in-your-face political statement ("we won't pull out - we're doing the opposite!") with some shuffling of personnel - some competent people at that - but without a clear strategy or coherent policy to back it up.

To call this "incompetence" does not do it justice. This issue is at the core of our current ills. Look at it this way: Bush is sitting atop something - the U.S. government - that he neither understands nor much likes or appreciates, and pulling its levers to build something that he also does not understand or appreciate - a civil society in Iraq. The two - the dysfunctional U.S. government and dysfunctional Iraq - may not be mirror images (even the U.S. government isn't quite that bad) but they are strangely complementary." more