Bush clearing

I think that President Bush likes clearing brush because (unlike Iraq) it is a problem whose solution he understands and can manage. He knows that if he keeps going back and forth, back and forth from the brush to the brush pile that the pile will get bigger and the brush will get thinned. If he then burns the pile it will be reduced to ashes and confront him no more.

I think maybe that is the type of problem the President is well suited for. I don't think he understands Iraq and why Iraqis have been able to confront him after Baghdad was burned. I don't think he understands that going back and forth, back and forth from hardened base to conflagration is not thinning the insurgents, but rather increasing their numbers.

I think that he doesn't know what to do. He shocked and awed them Iraqis according to plan but there were no candies. There were no flowers. His stature did not become Churchillian, but more like Jethro Bodine (although an unkind one).

So now he seems to put on the best show he can, all pomp and leers, all tirades and arm waving, all hat and no cattle. As America's problems escalate he bikes, and fishes, and naps, and clears brush because those are activities he can handle. Let us hope he remembers to chew his pretzels.