I expect you saw one or more of the closing performances put in by our erstwhile commander in chief. The last, his farewell address to the nation, was a flaccid medley of his most oft-repeated themes, a bit tired-sounding after eight years, but drafted semi-competently for Bush by whoever is left to do these things at the White House. This was Bush the product – the visionary warrior-prince with the wry “by crackee” half-grin and glint of optimism. For my money, the final press conference provided a far more honest portrait of the man. This is the Bush we really knew – arrogant and dismissive; an obvious imbecile who talks down to you; a man constitutionally incapable of admitting error and for all appearances utterly delighted with the very thought of himself. For him, the presidency is an intensely personal experience – so much so that he seems to measure every trial he put the nation through by its effect on his demeanor.

It was a pretty amazing performance. I wonder what any sane psychiatrist (i.e. not Charles Krauthammer) would make of Bush’s decision to term the absence of WMD in Iraq as a “disappointment”? Yes… how disappointing it must have been for him personally when the facts on the ground failed to conspire with the fictions he and his administration feverishly spun around that sorry nation. Here is what he had to say about his critics:

“I view those who get angry and yell and say bad things and, you know, all that kind of stuff, it’s just a very few people in the country. I don’t know why they get angry. I don’t know why they get hostile.”

I hardly need to comment on this, but what seems most striking is his depiction of people’s anger as baseless. He has obviously made millions angry over the past eight years with one disastrous decision after another, one cynical (if clumsy) deception after another. But that’s in that other country he’s never been to… that country called the United States.

Then there was the stuff he said about Katrina. The thing about the “helicopter drivers” rescuing people on rooftops was just kind of non-sequitur, of course. What was fascinating was the fact that, of all his administration’s failings during that disaster, the item that appears to have stuck in his tiny mind (he “thought long and hard” about this) was his decision not to land Air Force One in Baton Rouge.

“The problem with that and — is that law enforcement would have been pulled away from the mission. And then your questions, I suspect, would have been, how could you possibly have flown Air Force One into Baton Rouge, and police officers that were needed to expedite traffic out of New Orleans were taken off the task to look after you?”

Amazing stuff. It’s really all about him, isn’t it?

Of course, he’s not done yet. He and Congress are fully supporting Israel’s rampage in Gaza, even as they attack UN-run shelters for refugees, even as they drop burning white phosphorus on crowded urban neighborhoods. Bush’s diplomatic team is doing its usual slow walk – just as they did during the Lebanon attack in 2006 – giving Israel as much time as possible to burn its way to its objectives. They’ve got the blood of hundreds of innocents on their hands, including more than 250 children, and it’s not over yet.

Bush is going out the way he came in: an insufferable fool, presiding over needless slaughter. He’ll be missed.

luv u,

jp