The "Decider"

George W. Bush told us yesterday that he's the "Decider". An even casual look at his past shows a man who has decided over and over to blame others for his mistakes and have others clean up after him. Howard Fineman explains that nothing has changed.

“The Decider,” a.k.a. President George W. Bush, thinks of himself as a can-do guy. He likes to hammer away at his to-do list until he can check off every item and go fishing for the weekend. Back in the day, when I was interviewing him in the Texas governor’s office in Austin, his desk always was as empty as the deck of an aircraft carrier with all its planes aloft.

But now the Can-Do President can’t, or won’t, or isn’t even able to try. He has a long — indeed, ever-lengthening — to-do list. But circumstances, combined with his beliefs, loyalties and mistakes, are forcing him to put off to the future — or even into the next presidency — the tasks he needs to do today.

Bush has become a one-man holding action.

So solutions to the Iraq debacle, Social Security and the expanding deficit will have to wait until another day administration. And what about Iran?

Finally, Iran: a nightmare waiting to happen. I’m not a global intel guy, but the people I know and trust tell me that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the real deal; that is, a real menace — and not just to Israel, but to our other major client/partners/sort-of-friends in the region, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon.

But the president is hemmed in; his erstwhile British buddy, Prime Minister Tony Blair, preventively has said “count me out” of any military action.

So it looks like Iran, too, will wind up being a matter for another day, and for someone else’s — very cluttered — desk.

In essence the unnecessary debacle in Iraq has made it all but impossible to respond to what may be a very real threat in Iran. Which brings us to a point that Mr. Fineman doesn't bring up, is Iran a threat today because of Bush's axis of evil chest pounding a few years ago? I think they are at least a greater threat because of it. The hardliners in Iran were losing power in Iran before Bush's infamous speech. As George W. Bush should know there is no better way to cement your power that to have a threatening outside enemy. Thanks George.