"Captain Queeg" in the White House

George W. Bush "thinks" on his feet (photo)

Here's a piece well worth reading:

Don Monkerud: 'Bush unravels under pressure'

What happened to the cheerful, easy-going guy who every [? I have to confess, this never entered my mind] voter wanted to sit down with over a beer during the last presidential campaign? Once portrayed as an honest, likeable guy-next-door, the President split into a later day model of a peevish autocrat fumbling to maintain power and control, a Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde.

Some claim that the president hasn't changed--his portrayal was the work of career-enhancing puff pieces by a news media more concerned about future access, aware of the Bush coterie's demands of loyalty, and fearful of retribution dealt anyone who crossed them.

With an expensive and increasingly unpopular war, a failure to respond effectively to a major national hurricane disaster, and a persistent investigation of the White House leak of a CIA agent's name, the rigidly choreographed, tightly controlled efforts to manage the president's image are unwinding under media pressure. According to Dana Milbank in The Washington Post, "Only the president's closest friends and family know (if anybody does) what he's really thinking these days."

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