Accidents Happen
Via Tristero at Digby: Gail Sheehy wrote one of the few media profiles from 2000 that gave a relatively accurate view of Bush as a candidate. Her Vanity Fair article shows Bush to be opportunistically bright, but politically reluctant, relentlessly distracted and profoundly negligent. It was this kind of reporting that, at the time, made a Bush victory seem impossible (which it may have been, depending on how one views Katherine Harris and Antonin Scalia).
Anyone who was paying attention could have anticipated many of the problems the country faces now. It’s not a question of liberal and conservative values; real liberals can respect conservative values, while disagreeing with them. This is a question of oligarchic dynasty and the subversion of democracy by corporations and the media. The article is worth a look, if for nothing else as a measure of the serendipty of the Bush machine. And, as Al Gore notes in the video below, George would have made a wonderful Commissioner of Baseball; it’s all he really ever wanted.
