Reading notes

When Mr. Saletan is on, he’s really on. Like so:

The case against President Bush is simple. He sold us his tax cuts as a boon for the economy, but more than three years later, he has driven the economy into the ground. He sold us a war in Iraq as a necessity to protect the United States against weapons of mass destruction, but after spending $200 billion and nearly 1,000 American lives, and after searching the country for more than a year, we’ve found no such weapons.

Tonight the Republicans had a chance to explain why they shouldn’t be fired for these apparent screw-ups. …

“A senator can be wrong for 20 years without consequence to the nation,” said Cheney. “But a president always casts the deciding vote.” What America needs in this time of peril, he argued, is “a president we can count on to get it right.”

You can’t make the case against Bush more plainly than that. …

The important thing is that the GOP is trying to quash criticism of the president simply because it’s criticism of the president. The election is becoming a referendum on democracy. …

In a democracy, the commander in chief works for you. You hire him when you elect him. You watch him do the job. If he makes good decisions and serves your interests, you rehire him. If he doesn’t, you fire him by voting for his opponent in the next election. …

So now you have two reasons to show up at the polls in November. One is to stop Bush from screwing up economic and foreign policy more than he already has. The other is to remind him and his propagandists that even after 9/11, you still have that right.

Wow. Can’t top this. Thanks, William.

[via theprogressivemiddle]