Sweden? Switzerland? Who Cares!

"We Create Our Own Reality!"

Bush is an embarrasment. A huge embarrassment. But how bad is it really? Well, read this:

...Tom Lantos, a Democrat from California and the only Holocaust survivor in Congress - mentioned that the Scandinavian countries were viewed more positively. Lantos went on to describe for the president how the Swedish Army might be an ideal candidate to anchor a small peacekeeping force on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Sweden has a well-trained force of about 25,000. The president looked at him appraisingly, several people in the room recall.

"I don't know why you're talking about Sweden," Bush said. "They're the neutral one. They don't have an army."

Lantos paused, a little shocked, and offered a gentlemanly reply: "Mr. President, you may have thought that I said Switzerland. They're the ones that are historically neutral, without an army." Then Lantos mentioned, in a gracious aside, that the Swiss do have a tough national guard to protect the country in the event of invasion.

Bush held to his view. "No, no, it's Sweden that has no army."

The room went silent, until someone changed the subject.

A few weeks later, members of Congress and their spouses gathered with administration officials and other dignitaries for the White House Christmas party. The president saw Lantos and grabbed him by the shoulder. "You were right," he said, with bonhomie. "Sweden does have an army."

The revelaing anecdote was pieced together by Ron Suskind, whose new article examines how such ignorant, blinkered attitudes flow from the faith-based nonsense that has plagued the Bush White House through the past three years. Take this meeting with a top White House aide:

The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality - judiciously, as you will - we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

How terrifying is that? How flagrantly egomaniacal! I mean, they sure created a new reality in Iraq, right???

Suskind also quotes an influential Republican saying "if Bush wins, there will be a civil war in the Republican Party starting on Nov. 3."

Actuall, there will be a civil war in the GOP whether Bush wins, loses or draws:

"It's going to be early on November 3 that the battle starts for the heart and soul of the Republican Party, and it's not going to be neat and clean," vows Conservative leader Richard Viguerie.

"Bush has a choice: He can be a part of the redefinition of the party, or he can step aside," says David Keene of the American Conservative Union. "The neocons have had some inordinate influence and made some serious mistakes."

This US News article examines the GOP tensions in more detail. It's something that Kerry should be exploiting as much as he can. But I suggest you read the Ron Suskind article first.