New Award?

Brad Delong is the scorekeeper in this year's hard fought "Stupidest Man Alive" contest. One of his recent posts inclines me to believe we might need a new category - call it the Jonathan Swift "There is none so blind . . . " SMA category. So how about it, Brad? His post hints that David Frum is a good candidate:
Frum: [M]uch of the trouble is the president’s own fault. He chose to appoint Michael Brown to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He chose to spend lavishly on highways and farmers and a new prescription drug benefit at the same time as he was fighting a global war on terror. And of course it is he who remains the final decision-maker on national security....

[A]s one who... still critically supports him, I find the sudden surge of public disenchantment with Mr Bush very difficult to understand. If you were looking for a diligent manager of the office of the presidency, a close student of public policy, a careful balancer of risks and benefits – George W. Bush would never be your man. But is this news?...

In a 2003 book about Mr Bush, I offered this assessment of his personality: Mr Bush is “a good man who is not a weak man. He is impatient, quick to anger; sometimes glib, even dogmatic, often uncurious, and as a result ill-informed...
OK let's do the math: Bush makes bad appointments, is profligate with the public treasure, appoints idiots, is a lousy manager, doesn't understand the issues, bad tempered, dogmatic, and an ignoramus by choice. So, David, what's not to like? I think I can see why you still follow him.

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