Commentary: Bush fulfills H.L. Mencken's prophecy (a great read)

It took just eight decades but H.L. Mencken's astute prediction on the future course of American presidential politics and the electorate's taste in candidates came true:

On July 26, 1920, the acerbic and cranky scribe wrote in The Baltimore Sun: " . . . all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily (and) adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

My late good buddy Leon Daniel, a wire service legend for 40 years at United Press International, dredged up that Mencken quote several years ago and found that it was a perfect fit for George W. Bush, The Decider. MSNBC's Keith Olberman highlighted the same quote this week. A tip of the hat to both of them, and to Mencken.

The White House is now so adorned by Mencken's downright moron, and has been for more than six excruciatingly painful years. It wouldn't be so bad if the occupant had at least enough common sense to surround himself with smart, competent and honest advisers and listen to them. But he hasn't.

Read the rest right here:

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/galloway/story/19824.html

Hope everyone on DU is having a wonderful Saturday morning!

Throughout this ongoing national catastrophe Bush has kept close around him a coterie of incompetents and ideologues always on guard to defend the indefensible and justify the unjustifiable. They brush the lapels of the emperor's suit of gold and whisper that he is right and God will make him shine in American history.

Perhaps the crowning blow came when it was revealed that The Decider is now getting his strategic advice and counsel from none other than Henry Kissinger, the author of genocide in Cambodia; wholesale slaughter in Chile; abandonment of American POWs in Laos; betrayal of South Vietnam, and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

When we got our Village Idiot. He's in the White House. Along with his small army of Village Idiots.

Interesting that the seeds were already planeted in 1920.

how to expand on H L Mencken's prediction of a moron in our whitehouse.

I hope this gets read far and wide for we know it all but his way of stating it is excruciatingly riveting!

Happy Saturday to you, too, and thanks for this link, givemebackmycountry!

Recommended~

The guests all said that the talk of D.C. and in the blogosphere was all about an impending strike in Iran; that Dick Cheney was bulldozing his way into prominence again by bad-mouthing Condie Rice; that Israel was pushing hard for a strike (knowing the U.S. always carries the slop bucket).

Most U.S. military leadership says we cannot sustain yet another action, but to the extreme right, such an attack makes sense: they won't be any less popular with the public (of little concern to them) and there is virtually no domestic resistance to such a plan. More importantly, it will lock in future U.S. "leaders" for many years to come in this imperial venture. If it "succeeds," then some form of imperial hegemony might come of it. If it fails, they can at their leisure blame the Democrats (who are both woefully unable and lack the gut to respond to the most telegraphed of punches). To use the jargon of the modern de-natured liberal: IT'S A WIN-WIN!

I gave this a recommendation.

my sig line which has a quote from Menchen in it.....

He was a forerunner of Gore Vidal, imho. Sometimes so cynical that it makes your heart break for the truth that you want to rail against...if you are an "idealist" which I am...but more and more it seems both Menchen and Vidal were prophets. As much as I wish differently about the cynical state of our Political System that has grown worse and worse.

Maybe the HOPE is that more of us SEE THIS than ever before. And, that's when the CHANGE starts. We can hope, anyway.

I just wish that the spelling of his name could be agreed on.... It seems to vary.