The President is really losing it, now

I know Dana Milbank of the Washington Post isn't the most dispassionate observer of the Bush team--but his report on the behavior of the Prez at the last news conference is kind of disturbing.

The President is apparently displaying the kind of childishness and truculence that his Press Secretary Tony Snow engaged in just prior to announcing his departure from the scene.

And he's behaving this way publicly. You read these questions and Bush's answers and tell me if you don't see signs of encroaching depression and broken defense mechanisms:

Yesterday's news conference was just minutes old when President Bush made a startling announcement.

"Mandela's dead," he said.

There was a gasp in the White House briefing room at this news, which would no doubt surprise the 89-year-old Nelson Mandela himself.

Fortunately, the president quickly clarified that he was not speaking of the sainted South African but of his equivalents in Iraq. "Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas," he explained.

Mass exhalation...

Is a recession looming?

"I think I got a B in Econ 101."

(Serious question for American homeowners and working people=lame joke by the POTUS? That's not going to calm the markets or the people...)

His thoughts on Israel's bombing of Syria?

"I'm not going to comment on the matter."

(Why the hell not?)

How about the racial conflagration in Jena, La.?

"There's litigation taking place."

(HUH?)

Ken Herman of Cox News tried to draw out the news-shy president. "For Republicans seeking election next year, are you an asset or a liability?"

"Strong asset," was Bush's full reply.

"Can I follow?"

"No."

The rest was blaming Congress--blaming the present Congress for the upcoming failure of SCHIP, and blaming the former GOP Congress for Greenspan's recent criticism of the Bush economy.

When blaming Congress was impractical, the president found other worthy targets. Asked about the Iraqi government's problems, he noted that "part of the reason why there is not this instant democracy in Iraq is because people are still recovering from Saddam Hussein's brutal rule."

A state of denial, paraded publicly. No kidding, he really sounds like he's losing it now. A leader simply doesn't act like that, in front of the press, when the country's facing a bunch of crises. Maybe someone inside the White House finally "burst the bubble" this week and told him what was going on in the outside world. He sounds like the generals who led the Charge of The Light Brigade--"I don't want to talk about it, none of it is my fault..."

Scary stuff. He sounds as if the political realities and consequences of what he's done and failed to do are finally sinking in--and he can't handle it, anymore. What does a stupid megalomaniac do, once he finally realizes that he's failed?