To the Editor:
George W. Bush’s performance—for indeed, that is what it was—on Monday at his final scheduled news conference would have made for fine theater if it had been fictional. Sadly, it was real—or at least as real as this president would allow it to be. The level of self-rationalization, defiance, willful ignorance and simple denial was extraordinary.
Here is a president whose most significant legacy was to plunge our country into a devastating and unnecessary war in Iraq, one that has made the Middle East demonstrably more unsafe while demolishing our standing in the world; and who has devastated our economy, our civil liberties and the very sense of commonwealth that has held this country together.
And yet, as he has said in interviews, he exits with his “head held high.”
May we never be subjected to such an arrogant, ignorant man as our president again.
Mark Hagland
Chicago, Jan. 13, 2009
Note from KBJ: I hope Mark Hagland gets treatment for his Bush Derangement Syndrome.
