Bye, bye Bushie

Dubya has proven to be remarkably pathetic in his last few days in office, giving lame campaign speeches in hopes of burnishing his legacy. Perhaps even more pathetic have been the conservative columnists and writers who somehow have stayed toadies to the very end, trying to argue that this quintessential mediocrity, this remarkably unreflective and simple-minded man, deserves to be thought of as some kind of a great leader. It demonstrates to me a sick devotion to war as the noblest endeavor of humankind -- at least when undertaken by other peoples' children. Here's the Register's editorial on his final press conference.

McCain not that different from Bush

Here's an excellent piece by Chuck Pena analyzing John McCain's recent foreign policy speech. Most of the news media portrayed him as fundamently different from Bush, mainly because he vowed not to "go it alone" unilaterally in battling the central threat he perceives, that of radical Islamism. Such analysts, Chuck argues rather persuasively, overestimate Bush's unilateralism -- he's said he's willing to act unilaterally but he does try to gather allies -- and underestimate the policy similarities between McCain and Bush. If anything, McCain might be even more aggressive militarily than Bush.