Willful Ignorance in the White House: Why Oh Why Are We Ruled by This Disconnected-from-Reality [Unprintable]?

Hoisted from Comments: Barkley Rosser:

Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal: Fair and Balanced Almost Every Day: Stupidest Men Alive Nominations: Josh Bolten: Is Bolten any stupider than Rove himself or Bush for that matter? What struck me the most listening to Bush's press conference when he dumped Rumsfeld was how clear it was that he really was surprised at the GOP losing the House. I mean, it is one thing before an election to go around being optimistic and saying you will win, just as he said he was going to keep Rumsfeld on, and all that. But it is now clear that he and Rove (and Bolten also apparently) really were drinking seriously self-delusional kool-aid.

I have gotten a Republican friend of mine all upset by saying the most dangerous thing about Bush is his willful ignorance. This business of apparently really believing they would keep the House is an extremely striking example. If there is anything that might come out of this election in terms of improving the executive's performance, I hope it will be that Bush will get out of his cocoon a bit more, preferably a lot more, maybe even read a newspaper from time to time?