Planet Safire Has Left the Solar System

William Safire, speechwriter Spiro Agnew and former New York Times columnist, was on Meet the Press yesterday. Safire was recently honored with the so-called "Presidential Medal of Freedom," a recognition nowdays mainly reserved for those who have lied mightily in the service of George Bush and subsequently been proven disastrously wrong (think George Tenet). Steve Benen caught the show and thought that Safire might not be fully invested in reality:
Safire wasn't alone in mentioning the war in Iraq, but his response was, shall we say, unique.

"The Iraq story is obviously the big story of the year. And I look at the Trumanesque quality in the White House now. You have a president who is facing all this bad news coming out of Iraq and the casualties and the brink of civil war. And he's hanging in there and he's not admitting defeat, he's not embracing defeatism. And he's coming up with another approach, and who knows, he may turn it around."


It prompted Kate O'Beirne, of all people, to counter Safire, saying, "In 2004, being steadfast like that served him well. The contrast was John Kerry is a flip-flopper and George Bush is steadfast. But by 2006, that was no longer an asset. What they considered steadfast, I think, looked stubborn and out of touch."

Yup. Steadfirm George may turn it all around alright, probably with some of his patented trenchant analysis and ingeniously constructive thinking. Personally though, I have more confidence that benign space aliens may step in to save the day.

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