George Bush: The DeriderDecider, Not the Decision Maker

The president's questionable terminology aside - I mean, he still can't speak English like a normal person - I notice a few others are also having some problems with Bush's thought process this week.

From Dick Meyers of CBS:

Few grownups talk the way George W. Bush does.

"I'm the decider, and I decide what's best," said the president.

No, he wasn’t having a tantrum about the rules of a kickball game. It just sounds that way. He was talking about who gets to be on his team.

Donald Rumsfeld gets to stay on Little George's (his mom made that up, not me, so don't get all bent out of shape) team. 'Cuz, "I’m the decider."

Karl Rove gets to stay on the team, too — but he has to play a new position in the outfield. He doesn’t get to play with policy anymore, just elections. "I decide what's best."

And from Joe Conason at Working for Change:

“I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation,” said the President of the United States, sounding as peevish as a toddler banging his silver spoon on the high chair. “But I'm the decider, and I decide what's best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the Secretary of Defense.”

By reminding everybody that he is “the decider,” George W. Bush no doubt hoped to stifle embarrassing protests from a growing corps of retired officers such as General Anthony Zinni, who believe that the war in Iraq has been ruinously botched and that the Secretary of Defense should retire. But his defensive outburst only drew attention to the most deserving target of criticism: himself.

While the frustrated generals named Mr. Rumsfeld in their complaint, they clearly aimed at Mr. Bush. They know that the commander in chief was implicated, from the beginning, in every bad decision perpetrated by the Pentagon civilian leadership. They understand why the president cannot take their advice to dump Rummy, as Brookings Institution military analyst Michael O'Hanlon pointed out: “For Bush to fire Rumsfeld is for Bush to declare himself a failure as president.”