The idiot in chief

when he thought the cameras were off.



Once again, the MBA president shows that he has a solid understanding of the economic crisis. Yes, the problem is that Wall Street got drunk, and the now, "The question is, ‘How long will it sober up and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments.’ ”

The thing that’s troubling is it appears that Bush thinks that assessment is accurate and meaningful. When he gets to the part about “fancy financial instruments,” there’s the same slowed delivery, jutting out of the face and pause for effect that have accompanied so many of Bush’s sales pitches for the administration’s snake oil over the last seven years. Indeed, in the middle of his schtick, there’s what appears to be a second of seriousness (as serious as can be expected when one is using the phrase “fancy financial instruments” as a substitute for genuine understanding of a significant financial crisis), when attendees think he might be speaking earnestly and probably feel awkward about their chuckling over a crisis that’s causing a lot of real people a lot of real pain.

But any good fundraiser knows that it’s bad form to make people with pockets this deep feel even a moment of discomfort, so the administration’s pitchman quickly moves on to a lighter topic: the housing crisis. Bush recognizes that there is a housing crisis in the United States, but sees no evidence of it in Houston or Dallas, because Laura is looking for a house in Dallas. That’s right, the “ranch” in Crawford is no longer useful as a prop because Bush doesn’t have to pretend to be a cowboy anymore. Or a farmer, or rancher, or whatever the fuck he was pretending to be to get so many rubes to vote for him because they’d like to have a beer with him.

Of course, because they voted for him, many of them now can’t afford beer.