USEFUL TRAITS FOR A PRESIDENT

USEFUL TRAITS FOR A PRESIDENT

By Peter Fredson

March 9, 2006

It is difficult to find exactly what presidents do. They interact with other humans constantly, using speech as their main tool, attempting to solve social and economic problems by getting other people to do the actual physical or social tasks they recommend, with a reputation based mainly on success in their endeavors. Some are rewarded handsomely with lavish living arrangements, social rituals, servants, and certain exemptions from ordinary tasks.

It is easier to find what desirable traits most societies list as essential for their leaders. Some of these include the following with a hasty appraisal of mine for George W. Bush

Ability to influence others: Bush influences and is tremendously influenced by Fundamentalist Christian, Corporation Executives and neoconservative ideologues. It is not certain how much he is manipulated or managed by these sources, but Dick Cheney and Karl Rove are his main advisors, who have inculcated their ideas into the Bush management style.

Adaptive to Change: Bush once he was indoctrinated into Christian and neoconservative ideology has been unable to change to any degree. His sources are absolutist, they are his vision, so he must stay that course. He has no other ideas.

Assertiveness: Once Bush has decided on a course he cannot easily change it. As in the case of Harriet, it takes a major and mighty force of opinion, including loss of support, to his mind.

Bases actions on reason, not on emotion or feeling: Bush primarily recurs to his religious and family background to deal with any situation. He rarely acts rationally but frequently interjects his religious and corporate experience to handle situations.

Bearing: Bush is quite a circus of personality display when in a good mood. He swaggers, struts, smirks, smile, glad-hands, pats kids on the head, and is a hail-fellow-well-met Rotarian when trying to con people into some agenda like social security and Medicare. One might say that he is often ebullient. Others would say this is a dry-drunk way of coping with personal failure, or compensating for poor performance by sheer charismatic tricks. Certainly this is a deliberate strategy, showing optimism in the sheer face of failure, daily informing the world he is close to VICTORY and that everything is going very well in Iraq. This is a good example of how illusion can overcome failure.

Broad-minded: Bush is horribly offended by random sex, by gays, by any sort of illicit love, by even the mention of sex. He would change the constitution to suit his close-minded views of sexual relationships. Any mention of abortion, condoms, sodomy, lesbianism, AIDS, the sight of a nipple will bring a diatribe from Bush or an Ashcroft crony on the evils of sex.

Candor: Bush prefers deceit, secrecy, stealth, midnight action, to openness. He loves to “get away” with lies. This is partly due to his absolutist mentality, as well as to sheer pleasure in sneaking something over on the public. He misuses his executive privilege to appoint the most abominable people into responsible public positions, like Ashcroft and Bolton.

Charisma: Bush has plenty of pep when occasions call for him to strut and swagger and charm audiences. He can turn on his charisma at will, in fact he depends on it rather than on his competence. His smiles, arms-around-shoulder buddy-buddy familiarity presentation in public win friends who will overlook other shortcomings.

Commitment: Bush may be the very definition of a committed True Believer. He is absolutely committed to charismatic evangelistic Christianity with dominionist overtones. He would impose or intrude his beliefs on the entire world, such is his commitment to his indoctrination into the world of fantasy, Heaven, Hell, Sin, Angels, Redemption, etc. He cannot distinguish between fantasy and any type of objective reality.

Common-sense: Bush is an enigma. At times he can cut Brush, strum guitars, eat cake with the best of people, while other times he is off on his illusions and fantasies. He would change the constitution to insert Bible Quotations, and he would base legislation on the same quotations from his favorite philosopher, Jesus. He said that God told him to invade Iraq. He may be waiting for another sign to invade Iran, Syria, North Korea, or any other nation that his God finds objectionable. He would destroy an entire village of innocent peasants with a missile in order to kill one “terrist.” His fly-paper strategy to attract terrorists into Iraq so that he can kill them all and thus rid the world of terror completely is a loony idea from a loony True Believer.

Competence: We don’t know what Bush is competent IN. We mentioned cutting brush, taking very long vacations, emptying his mind of foolish worries over floods, selling off National Parks, selling off our country to highest bidders, still making more nuclear bombs in order to kill Muslims in Iran and Syria, etc.

Competitive; Bush hates any kind of competition. Can’t stand it. Would dearly love to destroy any competitor with any means available. Slander, violence, misinformation, legislation, etc.

Confidence: Bush has the confidence of a True Believer that his God has selected him for action. But he distrusts people, including all of his Republican Senators, which he keeps on a very tight leash with constant threats of cutting off the money supply. He has confidence in faith-healers, in Creative Intelligence, not in science, and trusts in a few very wealthy people who own vast oil supplies. The trouble is that he has no earned a smidgen of confidence from his public that he will maintain, defend and protect our Constitution. In fact the opposite is true.

Conscientious: We know that Bush frequently prays and brings his entire cabinet in on his prayer sessions, and anyone else around when the occasion strikes him. We know he is conscientious in cutting brush on his ranch. Otherwise it is difficult to know what he is conscientious ABOUT. Perhaps exercising, eating, and drinking well. Certainly he is often “out of the loop” on national affairs by tremendous lack of curiosity.

Controlled in social interactions; Bush has been schooled in manners by many people. He now can walk, talk, swagger, smile and shake hands with any world leaders. His people can throw fine parties for visiting dignitaries and Bush rarely disgraces himself by vomiting on some king or farting in his face. So, yes, Bush does well when he wants to be charming.

Coolness: At times Bush can overlook what some people might see as dangerous emergencies, and others as obliviousness to reality. At other times Bush will fly into a rage over any slight criticism from subordinates, or what he might consider a slight to his beliefs and will rush to squelch the source.

Cooperative: Bush, with his all-powerful and wealthy father, are not as inclined to be cooperative as aggressive in asserting their power and influence. He will cooperate when circumstances force him to consider consequences of his actions, but he would prefer to manipulate the consequences in his favor.

Courage: Bush had his chance to test his mettle in the Texas National Guard. But he preferred to dribble away his potential, to goof-off, to seek more lucrative employment than as a Saturday Night Warrior. He likes guns and will shoot at anything that does not offer any danger to him. The idea that he will take a rifle and bayonet and charge at anyone by unaided courage is ludicrous. He has surrounded himself with a “bubble” of protection unlike that of any emperor or dictator in history. He even has the ground swept beneath his feet to protect him from any possible injury. Any time he moves he has at least 1,000 people around him, as well as helicopters, gun ships, war ships, and submarines standing by. When he moves, entire streets and towns are shut down. Shopping malls are closed, any demonstrators dealt with harshly, Signs and slogans are torn down or effaced.

Creativity: Bush operates within his Christian dominionist framework. His fantasy takes place in supernatural dimensions, and depends on supernatural beings to bring to fruition any past biblical scene. His earthly concerns must surrender to the idea of eternal bliss in some unknown landscape with his loved ones around him to the tenth generation. His god offers the greatest escape from death, and the greatest possible reward for any of his actions. Pie in the sky when I die. This earth is just a temporary stopping place, lots of pain and tears but meanwhile I’ll live high and mighty.

Decisiveness: Once Bush has made up his mind, it would take dynamite or direct intercession from his fundamentalist base to change anything. As an absolutist, he dare not admit he could possibly be wrong.

Dependability: Bush can be depended upon to keep his religious and corporate base happy. Bush’s bottom line is maximum profit. Other interests need not bother seeking reliability as Bush has none. He will stop in mid-flight and turn around on domestic and foreign matters, if any profit be involved. He will grandiloquently announce legislation to leave no child behind, and then later will leave every child behind if it costs too much.

Determination: Bush is determined to make his words seem more than they are. He will go out of his way to damage a critic. He refuses to acknowledge making any mistakes. His determination consists in finding scapegoats for his actions, in avoiding blame, and in being able to strut and swagger without reason.

Empathy/Compassion: Bush once campaigned as a “compassionate conservative.” This soon proved to be one of his huge lies, intended only for consumption of his fundies, but not to be actually performed. This is one of his cynical ploys, exploiting human feelings and religious beliefs. He has the compassion of a hungry alligator. His empathy for starving and drowning people is to have a camera set up to show him giving some bystander a sandwich, then moving on to show him watching a crane building a levee, then moving on for some other photo-op while all other activities stop in order to show him dispensing compassion for the cameras.

Emotional Stability: On state occasions he is fairly stable. When discussing with colleagues or subordinates, if they contradict him he can fly into a rage, pound on the table, his face flushes and begins shouting insults. On one occasion he vehemently swore that the Gddddmmm Constitution did not apply to him.

Endurance: Bush’s physical endurance is good. He exercises daily, runs, rides a bicycle, and keeps in fairly good shape. He rarely dozes at cabinet sessions like Ronald Reagan did. He flies all around the world in his planes, seemingly untiring. He can strut and swagger all day if necessary. He can cut brush well. However, he remarks frequently that being President is “hard” and he seeks the relief of his ranch more frequently than any other President.

Enthusiasm: Once Bush has made up his mind to issue some legislation, no matter how controversial or stupid, he plunges into selling it to the public whole-heartedly. He makes speeches continually, will talk on any medium that offers space or time, and will point out only the “blessings” of his idea, but never ever will point out the possibility of dismal failure or abject illogic of his ideas.

Ethical: Bush will go to any lengths, provided he can get protection and deniability, to squelch competition or critics. If he will not do it personally he has many sycophants at his beck and call to steal, destroy, shred, whitewash, slander, kidnap, abuse, torture, hold in secret jails, wire tap, or kill anyone in the world.

Fair-minded: Bush does not like a flat playing field. He likes an advantage, like a card sharp with an ace up his sleeve. He has friends to prepare any possible debate with fake journalists, slanderous propaganda, and any other means, fair or foul, to make the outcome in his favor.

Flexibility: Bush has no personal flexibility. But he compensates with the flexibility of money, media input, authoritarianism, control of congress and courts, powerful friends, religious assertions, waving flags and crosses, prayer sessions, propaganda specialists like Karl Rove, and with his neocon cronies who control avenues to information and to wealth.

Focused: Once Bush decides that his God and fundamentalist base, and corporate friends approve of his decision, he goes ahead full-blast. He ignores all criticism, all obstacles, all possibility of consequences. He is single-minded when selling some scam to the public.

Good Judgment: Bush trusts the judgment of his early handlers and sponsors and waits until he gets their approval. He has poor judgment of his own, as he lives largely in a world of fantasy, undisturbed by mundane circumstances or logic. Most of his life he has been a personal failure but held up by powerful family and friends, and thrust onto the world stage where he was a fish flopping out of water, gasping for help, which came from his supporters.

Good Listener: Bush will listen to any religious theme within his particular belief system. He will listen to any corporate scheme which promises maximum profits. He will listen to adulation all day. But he will not listen to any logic outside of his religious absolutism. When on vacation he will listen to friends. He will listen to neighbors provided they have first been properly investigated by his security and ideological police. He will listen to FOX NEWS but not to other media that might criticize him.

Good Planner: Bush depends on advice of his fundamentalist and neocon advisors. They follow the New World Order Strategy, leading to world domination. All else is secondary.

Handles dissent or confusion well: Bush scores very low on either dissent or confusion. He would handle either by direct violence, slander, swift-boating, fake news reports, self-generated propaganda, attacks by sycophants and any other means that would make some obstacle slide away.

Honest appraisal towards facts and objective truth: Bush hits rock bottom on honest appraisal. He prefers to concentrate only on positive aspects, and has no compunction about lying to state his optimistic appraisals. Daily he issues reports of his great victories in Iraq, that everything is “on course” when we know that he has NO course. He seems to have no idea how to disengage from Iraq, or is lying through his teeth to remain in Iraq to continue his depredations and being War President. We know he lies about not having plans to attack Iran and Syria.

Honesty: To use this term for Bush would be to illuminate sarcasm. Bush will use honesty only as a final resort, when he faces his maker.

Humility: Bush is the antithesis of humble. His arrogance is
legendary, his goals are imperial, his manner is abominably superficial, hypocritical and best suited to photo-ops showing him as some sort of culture hero
.
Imaginative: Bush uses the imagination of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney as his guide
to reality. He cannot think outside of his religious neocon box. All of his effort is concentrated on his lust for wealth and power.

Improvement: Bush has shown no sign of improvement from the days when he was a petulant, irritable, irresponsible, carefree boy, protected by his wealthy and powerful daddy and friends. All of his negative traits have been strengthened by his terms in office.

Initiative: We are not sure if Bush initiative is generated by himself, or by his handlers. He probably would never have been president without the initiative of his father, family, fundamentalist advisors, and toadies like Karl Rove. He was literally thrust upon the world stage by the initiative of other people while he still was appearing to be a deer in some headlights.

Integrity: Bush has personal integrity for his fundamentalist sponsors, for his corporate sponsors, and for his neocon handlers. When he promises them that he will work for the combination of church and state, he then works for it. When he promises he will intrude his faith-based nonsense upon the world, he then promptly uses executive action to declare National Days of Bible Reading, of Prayer, let his fundies put their slogans and icons in public places, or stack the Supreme Court with religious loonies.

Justice: Bush appointed Ashcroft as his Attorney-General with consequent attacks on all forms of justice for citizens. He then appointed others as his attorneys to assure him that he is above the law, and can alter the Constitution at whim. He has incarcerated many people without warrants, held them indefinitely, withheld all lawyers and investigators, and arrogant insists on kidnapping other nationals at will.

Knowledge: When Bush took office he had never traveled, never read much, could not point out any spot on the globe with confidence. He still insulates himself from reality, preferring to listen or watch media very favorable to him. He lacks curiosity, believes in Creative Intelligence in preference to any science, and his main knowledge seems to come from reading his Bible with supposed facts 2,000 years old. He seems to want to take the U.S. back to the 1500’s when an organized church ruled most of Europe with the Inquisition and thundering preachers.

Knows how to delegate; Bush easily delegates important tasks to cronies and friends, usually without much investigation as to their qualifications. He also can quickly terminate their appointments when they fail because of incompetence, but Bush always insulates himself from their failures. He delegates to people like himself, dedicated fundamentalists who will keep out abortionists, gays, and liberals.

Learns from Experience: Bush seems to never learn from experience. He repeats the same mistakes, makes the same tired speeches eternally, hangs upon voicing “9/11” on every possible occasion. Listens to the same bad advice and rejects any other. He still insists there were WMDs in Iraq. His very tight security says that bad experiences are very likely and must be avoided on an hourly basis. He keeps harping on failed legislature, further mangling beyond recognition social security, Medicare, environmental concerns, aging, education, and domestic economy.

Maturity: Bush frequently acts in childish fashion, whenever he is contradicted. He goes into fits of anger, obscenities flow freely, and he makes life for people around him very difficult.

Objectivity: Bush objectivity flows from his fantasy life and belief in invisible intangible beings that surround him. Satanic influences are also constantly in mind, as when he labels entire nations as AXIS OF EVIL. When Bush finds statistical information which shows a negative trend, he suppresses it, or changes it to suit his situation. He will fire anyone that shows he is wrong-headed or ignorant.

Rational: Bush rationality stems from his absolutist beliefs. Anything not covered with bible quotations is suspect or tabooed. Bush does not trust science or scientists, but adores faith healers and televangelists thundering doom.

Relies on factual information: Bush prefers to manufacture his own facts.
Resilience: Bush bounces from failures daily, with a strut and a swagger, with a big smile and handshake. He seem not to ever notice his failures, unless this is a Karl Rove strategy to keep his fundamentalists happy.

Resolves conflicts cooperatively: Cooperation for Bush is someone else’s ability to conform to his demands. If anything is to move or change, it is not Bush. Aggressiveness, bullying, denunciatory speeches, are part of the Bush strategy for success.

Responsible: Bush loves to blame everyone but himself. The one time he claimed responsibility was for killing thousands of Muslims, but his fundamentalist base did not mind that, and he never apologized or offered compensation, nor will he ever do that until the faces an international court of Justice for War Crimes.

Self-assurance: Bush puts on a fine show of self-assurance, often when his polls are tumbling into the low brackets. He has a deliberate strategy of showing all of his personality traits, with a fixed smile, and bobbing head, to indicate that he is successful despite all appearances.

Sense of humor: Bush has a sophomoric frat-boy style of humor. Sometimes it is self deprecating. Often it is callous and biting. His use of semantics must indicate he is sarcastic when speaking of Democracy, Liberty, Sovereignty while his troops are actively killing Muslims and destroying their world. Part of his lying must include sardonic laughter when he puts one over on the world. His perpetual smirks certainly indicate he is highly amused by some abominable stunt he just performed. He likes to give subordinates insulting nicknames, like Turd Blossom Rove. Unfortunately, when I saw him looking at the devastation on the Gulf Coast with Katrina, I also saw a smirk cross his face when looking at people on rooftops begging for help.

Straightforward: There is nothing straight forward with Bush. Everything is staged, vetted, tested by subordinates for effect. Any public act is photographed with Bush in shirt sleeves as though he were actually going to handle refuse or help in anyway. His speeches are loaded with clichés, religious references, allusions to terror and fright and full of deliberate editing to make him look good.

Tact: When Bush is with people of considerable wealth or influence, he uses tact, even courtesy. When Bush is with subordinates, or heaven help us, with critics, his tact disappears and he goes into a rage, rant, or ducks for cover.

Tolerance for stress: We not sure what the Bush tolerance for stress is. All knowledge of his reactions is kept a deep secret. We don’t know what drugs he is taking for stress or what his physicians have prescribed to help with the stresses of the Presidency. Bush frequently remarks that being president is “hard’ and he as frequently ducks into the friendly well-guarded security of his ex-pig farm in Crawford, Texas, as he did before 9/11 and often thereafter. We know of his emotional outbreaks, as when he declared the Constitution was just a Gdddmm piece of paper.

Trustworthy: Personally I would not trust Bush as far as I could lift him. He will probably keep trust with his base, but he will double-cross anybody else without a moment’s thought. Looking at his speeches, the promises made one day are often nullified the very next day.

Unselfishness: Bush will show unselfishness whenever a camera is focused on him. Patting a little black child on the head, giving someone a sandwich after a flood, or making reassuring sounds to drowning victims. But when the cameras disappear, a different Bush emerges, ready to go home and make a speech to keep his popularity.

Withholds judgment until situations assessed: Bush usually waits until it is too late to assess a situation. He is very cautious about personal safety and polls. He prefers to let subordinates institute some stupidity, and if it goes over will then take charge. He waited far too long with Osama bin Laden and with Katrina, giving him the reputation of being aloof, isolated, and care-free.

Vitality: Bush still shows a lot of energy daily. He will make the same speech 16 times, as with social security, then insist everyone get aboard. Whenever a large profit is potential for his neocon cronies, Bush will exert a great amount of effort to get the deal. His championship of selling parts of America to foreign nations, as with our ports, outweighs any concern he has for the national good or prosperity. He is his own best cheer-leader, showing huge reserves of optimism even in the face of failure. He is determined to bulldoze his projects, come what may, and the devils take the liberals.

We don’t know why Bush prefers lies to honesty, candor to stealth, aggression to diplomacy, incompetent cronies to competent managers, fantasy to facts, absolutist dogma to rationality and other strange and troubling traits unbecoming any executive, not less a President.

We don’t know why Bush supporters prefer the same worrisome traits to honesty, dignity, compassion, logic. We don’t know why Bush prefers the counsel of tricksters, or uses dirty tricks and fake news as his main defense. We have little idea of how this shallow and petulant person could actually become president of the most powerful nation on earth, and deliver a magnificent fighting machine with all of its weapons, including nuclear, into the hands of an unstable person who goes into emotional rages over any slight contradictions of his imperial will.

Bloggers will probably disagree violently with my assessment.

I invite their own appraisals.