Several readers have objected to my suggestion that Fred Barnes has recently regained his critical faculties. To wit:
"I understand why you say this based on this column, but must beg to differ. It's all wrapped up in one sentence:
'Bush made one strategic error in 2005, guessing wrongly that the country was adult and serious enough to reform Social Security.'
Think about this. Barnes thinks Bush made ONE strategic error in all of 2005 (one of the worst years ever for an American administration). That alone still shows severe Kool-Aid addiction. To make matters worse, the error is basically blaming the American public for not blindly accepting the terrible Social Security "reform plan" put forth.
I thought it was the liberals who thought so poorly of the collective American public? That they aren't smart or sophisticated enough to understand a complicated issue. I guess only 34% of this country is smart enough to know what a great President we have."
He's not just great. He's a world-historical genius. Here's Powerline's John Hinderaker, from July last year:
"It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can't get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile."
It is always a mark of failing ideologies and cults that their first response to acknowledging reality is to blame the press - then the people. We appear to be in the second phase.