I'm never wrong

The DNC has put together what I think is a remarkable ad. The only visuals are a slow pan into a black-and-white photograph of President Bush. We hear about all the disasters wrought by this Administration, and then concludes with the fact that despite all this, Bush cannot admit a mistake or change course in repsonse to events. This is wonderful, because it hits Bush by attacking his strongest attribute: the notion that he is resolute and strong. It's positively Rovian in its strategy.

And it also happens to be true, and incredibly dangerous for the country. Matthew Yglesias notes this in his latest article, arguing that the Bush apologists in the media are admitting mistakes that Bush never would. To wit:

Iraq may be, in the words of The National Review's Jonah Goldberg, "a mess," in large part because of the president's bungling, but that's not necessarily any reason to vote against him. "So sure," Goldberg concluded, "[George W.] Bush hasn't done everything right -- never mind perfectly -- in Iraq. [Winston] Churchill didn't conduct World War II perfectly every time either."

Max Boot, house neoconservative on the Los Angeles Times op-ed page, reached for an analogy to Abraham Lincoln, who "is remembered, of course, for winning the Civil War and freeing the slaves" despite the fact that "along the way he lost more battles than any other president."

That's all well and good, but the President wouldn't agree with these pundits. He's never made a mistake, remember? And Iraq is going perfectly! Those bombs you hear are the bombs of progress!

Ultimately, his weakness in the upcoming debates and for the rest of the election will lie in his disconnect between fantasy and reality. Much like Bush's father was criticized for not knowing what a supermarket scanner was, W. deserves criticism for not knowing what a disaster in Iraq is when he sees it. Because, in fact, he was told this would happen before the war:

WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 - The same intelligence unit that produced a gloomy report in July about the prospect of growing instability in Iraq warned the Bush administration about the potential costly consequences of an American-led invasion two months before the war began, government officials said Monday.

The estimate came in two classified reports prepared for President Bush in January 2003 by the National Intelligence Council, an independent group that advises the director of central intelligence. The assessments predicted that an American-led invasion of Iraq would increase support for political Islam and would result in a deeply divided Iraqi society prone to violent internal conflict.

One of the reports also warned of a possible insurgency against the new Iraqi government or American-led forces, saying that rogue elements from Saddam Hussein's government could work with existing terrorist groups or act independently to wage guerrilla warfare, the officials said. The assessments also said a war would increase sympathy across the Islamic world for some terrorist objectives, at least in the short run, the officials said.

The "I'm never wrong" President IS wrong, and I believe the American people will eventually come to realize this.