Who runs the big show?

Oh what the heck, someone has to bring this up:

Who really is, or are, the president?

Sadly, that’s not a question any of the mainstream media are going to touch. They wouldn’t touch it if they were in possession of a firm answer and could prove beyond doubt who really wields the power and makes decisions in the administration fronted by G.W. Bush.

The question is never far from my mind, but it rose to the forefront again a couple of days ago as I watched a television replay of Bush trying to answer a reporter’s question about Iraq and those nonexistent “weapons of mass destruction.” He fumbled and bumbled and tried desperately to remember what he was supposed to say in such a circumstance. His efforts at recall were as obvious as those of a fourth grader who hasn’t done his homework. It was painful to watch; embarrassing.

Let’s stop pretending, folks. George W. Bush is too damned stupid to be president in fact. It’s barely possible that he was born with adequate I.Q. points, but he’s like so many television-bleared, football-hammered people in this country: He can’t focus, he’s too bored after 15 minutes too pay attention to anything that doesn’t blow up, scream, crash or take it’s clothes off. He doesn’t read, and has acknowledged proudly that he pays no attention to any news that isn’t set before him in summary form, spin included, by his “advisers.” He is, in fact, as empty headed as a stereotypical 16-year-old jock.

Published statements and quotes from former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill’s book (I haven’t yet read the book) confirm that vacuousness.

A degree from Yale? C’mon. How many idiot offspring of rich and famous people have the “great” universities granted degrees? Signifies nothing.

So who’s running the show? My own bet is the ghost, Dick Cheney. I know some people think it’s a group that includes Carl Rove and others of the behind-scenes right wingers, politely called neocons. But surely there must be some one person who has the final say in that contentious crowd.

I still have some hope that we’ll know someday how decisions were made in the Reagan White House. I have much less hope of learning who’s running things in the current mob.

(Isn’t it interesting, by the way, that little mentions of Reagan’s growing incapacity while still in the White House – asides in discussions of other issues – are now creeping into print? I’ve seen a couple of the “everybody knew” sort recently. If everybody knew, why the hell didn’t they tell us? We’re talking mental capacity here, not bad legs or a bad back.)

OK. So now I’m officially a conspiracy theory crank. I can live with that.