Don't Be a Stranger! Be a Resident, Mr. President

[NVMojo]

For the eve on the * inauguration coronation ...the news is just not that great for the * ....

Thursday, January 20, 2005; Page A41

This president's Washington is an insular, institutional place, a city of cordoned-off safe zones and Jersey-barriered encampments. It's a place where even a bit of outdoor fun involves a trip to a secluded reserve, far from any ordinary person. It's a city where dinner out means mediocre meals in vast banquet halls, where even dinner with friends is a hurried, early evening affair.

No wonder George W. Bush hates Washington.

more ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A22426-2005Jan19?language=printer

[Demeter]

1. I'm Sure the Feeeling Is Mutual

[CBHagman]

2. Fisher was nicely scathing, despite the title.

Check out these observations:

"Bush has positioned himself as a pro-immigrant president. This week, his whirlwind tour of the inaugural balls will give him a chance to step away from the fat cats and meet people who make in a year what some folks are paying to attend the coronation bash. The hardworking immigrants who staff the city's hotels would be thrilled to explain how they support a family of four on $20,000 a year.

"Bush has made security the centerpiece of his presidency. Just a few blocks from the White House, he can visit the No Child Left Behind building, formerly the U.S. Education Department, stroll around the corner and watch as freight trains rumble by with tankers full of explosive chemicals just waiting for a terrorist to blow them sky-high. The folks over at Homeland Security say they wouldn't want to impinge on the railroads' ability to keep chemicals moving, so there's been no action taken to ban dangerous cargo from this path through the heart of the federal city."

The reference to the possibility of Bhopal II being started right by the Capitol is one of those things that crops up in the Post sometimes. Those of us who live and work in the D.C. area think on these things and consider them when we go to any government building, large gathering, or on the Metro.

By the way, in the days of Clinton we'd hear of Tipper Gore and Hillary Clinton going out for lunch and a movie. We'd walk into Burrito Brothers and see a picture of Al Gore posing with the staff. You can still walk into Union Station and see photos of Bill Clinton posing with sales clerks who worked at the shops there.

Laura Welch Bush has been known to go shopping or to the opera, but Bush has almost nothing to do with the surrounding area. Notice, too, how limited his exposure to New York was this past summer, despite holding the Republican convention in NYC. He went right to a swing state to campaign. It's as though he can't bear to spend a minute anywhere he hasn't got a bunch of sycophants.

I think it goes beyond the security issues and Bush's beliefs about D.C. being mean and corrupt. "Mean" and "corrupt" describes perfectly more than a few political operatives and lawmakers of his own party, including -- what's this? -- some from Texas. As usual, Bush projects the vices of his own party onto others.

In addition, Bush almost completely lacks intellectual curiosity. We never hear of him being moved by a poem, intrigued by the customs of another culture, taking an interest in a garden or fine building. I think he just doesn't care about anything beyond the narrow confines of his interests and needs. Remember his description of the White House to the British children? "White."

Really, it's almost a sad case. But he has power over so many people, and it's hard to feel sympathy for his pathetic state.