Blame

I was startled this morning when it occurred to me that there was a time when the most embarrassing thing about the Bush administration was the Enron scandal. Can you remember back that far? Wow.

But my point here is not that George W Bush led an administration so bad that, what was once thought to be a huge scandal, is at the end, barely remembered. My point is rather that the blame goes beyond Mr Bush himself. I don't think at the time of his candidacy George Bush was an unknowable character. The attributes and predispositions which led to the fiasco of his administration were knowable in 2000. The sad and undeniable fact is that he was elected, sort of. For sure the second time. So who else is responsible? Certainly the annointers of the Republican party who gave him the nomination. And then there are the Supremes who overlooked their usual and long standing position against federal courts interfering in state issues, to dictate the outcome of the Florida voting process. And finally there is the national electorate. We got him because we wanted him, or, for the rest of us, because we didn't do enough to not get him. It's a sobering thought.