The opening sentence of Bill Keller's hilariously demented profile of George Bush is this:
George W. Bush is what no one predicted — a powerful president with a pure conservative agenda and a gambler's instinct. By comparison, Ronald Reagan may look like a moderate.
Well, I predicted it. Many of my readers have written in informing me that they predicted it. Anyone paying attention during the 2000 election could have predicted it - except a supine press corps giggling over their cute nicknames and bowled over by such mindbogglingly meaningless catch phrases as "compassionate conservatism" and "affirmative access." And, as Jeff Hauser (actually his "West Coast Correspondent") points out via email, one other notable person predicted it - Al Gore.
Maybe I'm crazy, but I keep remembering someone telling us in 2000 that Bush was a gambler who had a "RISKY TAX SCHEME." He told us that Bush was a conservative who was for the "powerful" not the "people," who's plans would benefit only the "wealthiest 1%" and he told us that "Governor Bush has declared to the anti-choice group that he will appoint justices in the mold of Scalia and Clarence Thomas." And he did it in front of national television audiences of nearly 50 million people.
