I've never been much of a fan of President George W. Bush. The nice way to put my sense of him is that his idea of how America should work radically diverges from mine. Another way to put it would be to say that I don't trust that he's really ever had the best interests of either the United States or the world as the basis for his administration, policies, etc. However, occasionally, he throws me a curve and I find myself a little bit drawn to something he says or does. While reading CNN.com today, this happened. CNN's Jack Cafferty reports that at a closed Republican fundraiser in Houston, Dubya said of the nation's economy, "Wall Street got drunk – it’s one of the reasons I asked you to turn off your TV cameras. It got drunk and now it’s got a hangover. The question is: how long will it sober up." Sure, it's not a good, full explanation of what happened, nor do I think it's an effective expression of how to remedy it. I mean, it essentially implies do nothing but let the free market fix itself over time--i.e. as long as it takes to sober up--which I don't think is necessarily the answer. Still, I think Cafferty's sarcastic comment that "The depth of the intellect at the very top of our nation's government is staggering, isn't it?" is kind of callous. I personally thought Bush's comment was a funny analogy that, at least from one perspective (again, a free market apologist perspective with which I don't necessarily agree), does capture a way of seeing what's happened.
Besides, wouldn't being hungover be one thing that Bush is highly qualified to talk about?
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