As long as we’re talking about Slate, Will Saletan has a very nice piece on the problem with President Bush on the site this evening. The gist of it is that President Bush is such a man of principle that he sticks to his principles even when the facts say they don’t apply or when the facts show that applying those principles produced completely different results than he said they would.
A more devilish way to put this might be to say that President Bush and his team have given a new turn to John Maynard Keynes famous response when challenged for changing his opinions so often.
Quipped Keynes: âWhen the facts change, I change my mind â what do you do, sir?”
For the Bush White House, when the facts change, you just change them back again. Why get distracted?