Georgie Boy

If you want to do a study of political manipulation, the best model is Ronald Reagan. His constant use of the words freedom, liberty and America, in combination with words like believe, concerned and dedication, created a kind of semi-hypnotic mantra that allowed him to get away with a lot of shoddy policies. In fact, he became known as the "Teflon President," because nothing seemed to stick to him. Now comes a president who has clearly modeled himself on Reagan, with much the same result so far, but recent indications are that the teflon is growing thin.

As well it should. Bush reminds one of a home-improvement contractor who makes a lot of promises about cost and quality, then delivers nothing even close to either. (And some of those jobs are already leaking or cracking.) To what extent he’s dishonest and/or inept is never totally clear, but his failures don’t seem to rankle his confidence; somehow he continues to carry his swagger and make even more grandiose promises of future accomplishment.

Even though it’s a touch surreal, it’s this confidence that carries him over. But after the third or fourth job he’s talked you into letting him do, say a kitchen remodeling that cost $8000 instead of $3300, and not in the color you specified, and taking 3 weeks instead of 10 days, you start to want away from him.

Then he comes to you and proclaims that the roof is in imminent danger, probably in 10-11 years, so the smart thing is to fix it now. He says he can do it for $18,000, and the whole thing will take two weeks. But since he considers the walls part of the problem somehow, his men will have to knock down and rebuild half of your outer walls too. "No problem. We'll be careful," he assures you.

At this point, the onus of sanity is on you. Do you agree to let him go ahead with it, or do you finally put the brakes on? Do you acquiesce to your wife when she says, "But, honey, he believes in Jesus and goes to church every Sunday?" Or do you learn from experience that the man’s promises are a sham? And if your wife then says, "Look at how sure he is about everything, dear, and he comes from such a nice family," do you cave? Or do you vote Democratic in 2006 and 2008, and clear this crew out?