Oddly Cheerful

Peggy Noonan is about as hard-core as a Republican can be, but she seems to have left the church W. She puts her finger on one point that grits my teeth:

I found myself Thursday watching President Bush's news conference and thinking about what it is about him, real or perceived, that makes people who used to smile at the mention of his name now grit their teeth. I mean what it is apart from the huge and obvious issues on which they might disagree with him . . .

As I watched the news conference, it occurred to me that one of the things that might leave people feeling somewhat disoriented is the president's seemingly effortless high spirits . . .

. . . his good humor seems to me disorienting, and strange . . .


Like strange in the sense that you get with crazy people, I think. That and his bizarre detachment and disinterest, the unwillingness to read even a single page memo on Iraq.

Americans can't fire the president right now, so they're waiting it out. They can tell a pollster how they feel, and they do, and they can tell friends, and they do that too. They also watch the news conference, and grit their teeth a bit.

We can't fire him, but Congress can, and should.

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