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This sounds good, but I wonder if McCurry has located a fatal flaw with Bush -- much like Sasso's realization that Bush is living in a fantasy world of spin. "He is tremendously insecure," McCurry says. "Any time any of his aides look like they have stature, he wants to suppress that, because it's about him. When it's not about him, he gets nervous that people will understand that he's not as good as everyone thinks he is."
"Is that his fatal weakness, then?" I ask.
"Yes, and you know who understands this better than anyone? John Kerry. The other day, Kerry said, 'I need humor,' which is why he did some of the late-night and morning shows. But the insight he had was, 'I can get under this guy's skin -- if we have the right kind of humorous barb.' " McCurry pauses. "Last night, Kerry read aloud a Bush quote" -- about how the CIA was guessing about conditions in Iraq -- "and made fun of him, which made the news this morning. So I know -- because I've been there -- that Bush was sitting in his suite in the Waldorf-Astoria getting ready for his day at the United Nations General Assembly, and I'll bet you any amount of money he watched that on TV and went nuts, because Kerry was making fun of his own words. If you saw the clip of the quote, Bush looked like his dad." McCurry takes a short pause for effect. "It was devastating."
I imagine it's much worse now than it used to be, as well. Bush truly believes he's the preznit, and that role elevates him about all others. I imagine his aides could talk to him and control him pretty well back in 2000, but after 4 years of preznitting no one can talk to him anymore.
But, campaign issues aside it's absolutely devastating for our country that our president cannot handle hearing any criticism or facts which he doesn't like.