America Doesn’t Want a Real Leader

The president believes that his role is to make the big decisions, and that decisions should be made based upon what’s right, not what is popular. 

Thus it is with Iraq, George Bush II believes his decision to push on in the face of widespread disapproval is the correct one.

But a strong leader would be altogether different from the incurious George who currently rules us.  In fact, the decision to maintain American power is the popular one.  It is just that different factions believe that American power is served by different struggles.  So even if we left Iraq, that would not represent the complete change that America needs.   

A strong and creative leader would level with us:

But America does not want strong and creative leadership.  It wants more of the same.  Yes, we may ask our leaders to vary when to play the game, but we still want to play.

By the way, you really should read Robert Draper’s new book about George II. See this excerpt in Slate.