Teenager-In-Chief

The Boston Globe:

George W. Bush sounds increasingly like your average defiant teenager. The teenager won't clean his room, and the president won't leave Iraq.

The president's latest news conference was another installment of rebel with a cause that a shrinking number of Americans believe in.

''We're not leaving so long as I'm president,'' promised - or threatened - Bush.

Acknowledging that public support for the war continues to wane, the president said, ''These are challenging times, and they're difficult times, and they're straining the psyche of our country.'' But as Senator John Kerry correctly pointed out, ''The American psyche isn't the problem. The problem is this administration's disastrous Iraq policy.'' In fact, the presidential psyche, not the national psyche, is a big problem.

Bush, the stubborn, won't leave Iraq. And even worse, he won't admit mistakes relative to getting us there in the first place, or military miscues since, when it comes to carrying out the mission, he dooms us to travel the same misguided path as long as he remains in the White House.

What's a nation to do? Ground the commander in chief for the rest of his term and take away his car keys?