For weeks, George W. Bush has been slithering down memory lane, and God knows we all very much appreciate the keen insights he has had to offer. And were they all to be stuffed into an oversized memoir, which of course they soon will be, I'd suggest Bambi's Mein Kampf as a spanking-good title.
I realize the grammatical difficulties with such a name -- in effect, "My My Struggle" -- but what the hell. George never fretted about language or fussed about details, so why start now.
Nor has he ever been particularly fastidious about truth and historical accuracy. As presidential memoirs and legacy tours go, that's certainly nothing new under the sun. But, true to form, George has been taking epic liberty with these concepts as he slithers new ground.
The result: something weakly, daintily akin to that masterpiece of deception, that rambling tome of poor writing and ideological raving, that nearly century-old non-page-turner of unappreciated genius and self-aggrandizement.
George has been doing a lot of these legacy-tour gigs lately, but the one that especially caught my eye was his little sit-down at the American Enterprise Institute -- soon to be renamed, it is viciously rumored (by moi), the American Enterprise Museum, courtesy its speaker this week.
It caught my eye because of the NY Times' headline: "'Headed Out of Town,' Bush Turns Reflective." I had hoped that signaled at least some creaking opening of critical introspection on Bush's part -- I never give up hope -- since that, after all, is what the adjective "reflective" customarily indicates. But said hope was dashed.
In fact, it was instantly dashed in the laughable lede: "President Bush shared some bittersweet reflections on Thursday as he looked back fondly on his White House days but regretted his inability to win passage of immigration legislation and to change the tone of debate in the capital."
It goes without saying that the president is the only one looking back "fondly on his White House days," so of course I won't say it.
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