Political Idiocy

Sheldon Richman of The Future of Freedom Foundation on Short-Sighted Bush:

Advocates of big government sometimes say that politicians are superior to business people because the latter are shortsighted: they only care about the next quarter’s balance sheet.

This was always nonsense, because while business has strong incentives to look farther up the road, politicians have little incentive to look beyond the next election.

It turns out that the case against the politicians was grossly understated. If they are looking as far as the next election, that’s extraordinary. Case in point: President Bush and his merry band of warmakers. How far were they looking up the road when they spoke in infallible tones about the arsenal of chemical and biological weapons of Iraq’s former president, Saddam Hussein? Sure, it served their immediate interest, which was to persuade the American people (and a few other gullible folks) to support the invasion and war. But now that the war is over and no weapons have been found so far, the administration’s credibility in the Middle East is shot. The expectation-lowering statements that have been coming out of the White House certainly don’t inspire confidence. So much for superior far-sightedness.

It isn't only our expectations about finding evidence of NBC agents and devices being lowered by the Administration. Our expectation of safety has also been lowered. Does the short-sighted, Do-As-Our-President-Commands-Or-You-Are-A-Traitor pro-war crowd really think that taking out our puppet in Baghdad has deterred and not emboldened those willing to sacrifice themselves in terrorist acts? I must have missed the FOX News coverage of Al Quaeda operatives surrendering en masse worldwide as a result of Baghdad's fall.