it's the way w. plays the game
"the decider" would have been an excellent name for a batman villain, don't you think? he could have tag-teamed with the riddler and the puzzler, spinning our gadget-laden protagonist into tizzy of flabbergasted reeling. batman would be challenged to come up with an answer to a dauntingly complex query, and then, when he offered his answer, no matter how solidly reasoned or correct it was, the decider would cackle, "that's a presumption that's simply not accurate," and the torture would begin anew.
bush has traded in his "decider" crown and scepter for the more grown-up military uniform of the "decision maker," but in this case the clothes don't make--or reform--the man, and his antics are every bit as bullheaded and loathesome under the new design. "i've picked the plan that i think is most likely to succeed," he says, and "some are condemning a plan before it's even had a chance to work." but this is such an obscenely and infuriatingly oblivious line at this point that robin and i are left too speechless and fuming to even toss up the obligatory "holy tunnel vision, batman!" that the audience is so rightly expecting. those of us faithful to the series know that the "plan" has had myriad chances to work, but it has not done so and will not do so, and trotting it out again with a fanfare in the key of e instead of c makes one wonder if the scripts for this particular drama are being written by the ghost of chuck jones. maybe somewhere some hopelessly sensitive child is sincerely rooting for wile e. coyote's success, but the majority of onlookers have always only snickered softly, shaken their heads, and muttered, "dumbass."
of course, no one dies when the bombs being detonated in the desert are made by acme, and when your favorite fictional dc evildoer reappears after an absence with a bag full of the same old tricks you're more than happy to welcome him, confident that he'll be summarily thwarted in the end. here in the real world, though, i'm afraid that the forces of good and sensible thought may have met their match in the decision maker. who will save us? anyone? anyone? i need a hero, and cowboys need not apply.
(signal courtesy of ElvenSarah)
posted by juniper pearl @ 11:20 AM
2 Comments:
At 12:34 PM,
Anonymous said…
The one question I'm dying to hear a reporter ask when Bush starts in on his "I'm the preznit, and I decide what's best, my job is to figure out the best plan" routine:
"Mr. President, it's been almost four years since our invasion of Iraq. More than three thousand U.S. troops have died, many more have been injured, countless Iraqi civilians have perished, and we are now trapped in the middle of a brutal civil war. Why should the American people trust you to decide what's best?"
I don't know if our boy king really believes that constant reminders of his supreme authority are reassuring to the public. But that's how he talks, which is maddening because the opposite is now true: people don't want him holding the reins anymore. But it continues: "The American people elected me to do a job, and I'm gonna do it the way I think is best," blah blah. It's telling that well into his second term, he still feels that he must constantly remind us that he's the president, the decider, the glorious leader, etc. Is there an insecure little child hiding behind that frat boy and his christianist bravado?
I sure do hate me some GWB.
At 10:03 AM,
juniper pearl said…
spine, if there were a string i could pull that would get either of us a press pass, that question would have been asked long ago. i don't know why anyone would be delicate about it at this point. i have a feeling that the more people question his rightness, though, the more stubbornly he's going to assert it. because you're completely right, he's very insecure and dependent on the prop of his own self-image as a strong, unwavering leader. and it was that image that won him his second election, more than his policies or proposed goals, so he isn't alone in thinking those are things a president should be. but he and everyone who backed him on those grounds in 2004 are out of their minds and don't understand how good decisions are actually made. what you need in situations like this, where the information coming in and the potential repercussions of any choice you make are so complex and involve so many variables, is someone humble, someone who won't place himself and his present-day image as commander-in-chief at the center of the debate. you need someone who'll remove himself from the equation entirely and focus on the rest of the bloody world, and if there's any one thing america should have known gwb would never, ever do . . .
yeah, i hate him, too. but he's not the only one.
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