President Hedgehog

Billmon pretty much nails it again, but I wonder if Bush might have been a hedgehog, all along. He's always been overly prickly about public criticism (which often brings out the frat boy towel-snapping of questioners), but he's also been this way about virtually every issue.

God in government? You betcha. To Bush, that's the only way it should be. Don't dare question the assumption.

Terrorism, pre-9/11? A bunch of overheated, overwrought bullshit. Don't bug me about it ("okay, you've covered your ass").

Privatizing Social Security? No matter how many holes the experts punch in my scheme, it's great, and I'll spend every day on the road to convince you to buy my fuckin' swampland.

Katrina clean-up? No matter what I do, no matter how long I sit with my thumb up my ass, "[message] I care." A year later, while the Ninth Ward still looks like Godzilla had a psychotic episode there, Bush is still saying, "[message] I care." Don't dare say I have my thumb up my ass, despite my awkward posture.

Pick almost any issue, and Bush is rolled up in a ball with his spines sticking out, protecting his ego. After a life of privilege and having others attend to his messes, I doubt it could be any other way. Maybe it's just human nature--after all, if you had gone through life with nothing more to show for it than bag money from Daddy's friends, a head full of extraordinarily destructive ideas, a couple of stolen elections and a presidential path strewn with wreckage, bodies and official corruption, you'd be defensive, too.