Are they Lieing or Just Stupid?

[rpannier]

Everytime something goes bad the Bush administration denies it's really bad. When things get worse, they say it's getting better. When things go very bad, they place the blame on someone else. My question is, "Are they liars, or are they just so deluded that they really cannot see how badly things and it's their fault?"

[benburch]

1. Both

And ugly, too.

[Jim Sagle]

2. And they smell bad, too.

[leftofthedial]

4. both is right, plus

arrogant and venal

[AgadorSparticus]

3. liars. i don't think they are stupid at all. very cunning and malicious

they are pure evil. no conscience. no remorse. unless of course if it mean higher ratings, greater public approval, better poll numbers, or more votes. then they will be whatever you want them to be.

[kera]

5. this is simply a primitive reaction

of someone with an immoral goal, the truth is the essence of moral

from a philosophical standpoint ,

practically we can understand that they don't like the prospect of a dark cell by telling the truth is that simple

[girl gone mad]

7. Sorry...

but I think they do possess a form of stupidity: absolute arrogance and inability to accept criticism.

They'll make the same mistakes over and over, continue on a path of poor choices and ignore good advice because they really believe in that us againsts them ethos. This to me is stupidity. Cheney may be cunning, Condi may be highly educated, Bush may be a master manipulator, but it isn't enough to match up against their collective ignorance.

[kera]

8. i agree with you

science without conscience is the most sinister form of stupidy and it is incomptible with life

[AgadorSparticus]

12. i used to think that until i heard someone say on NPR about their

tactic: repeat it over and over. never waver. consistency gets them everywhere. their "inability" to accept criticism and unwavering arrogance are by design.

i think it is an immature appeal to leadership. for the uneducated and poorly developed mind, it represents strength (thus leadership). i have gone to freeperland twice and each time, i see how that arrogance is like honey to bees. i think they truly see it as confidence instead of a weak coverup for inadequacies. content be damned because it goes over their heads anyways.

i agree. i think it is stupid to use that appeal to the thinking populace. but they had to form their ignoble base first and that line of thinking is designed for those folks. not us. to me, that isn't dumb. that is cunning.

[Lexingtonian]

6. the trilemma dilemma....it's both

Liars, lunatics, and lords- all at the same time....

You're assuming that they actually care about reality enough to live on its terms. The evidence is that they don't want to, that they minimize each of the two as best as they can. They are trying to live in a dream world.

Somebody has to pay for the all the screwups that result from disrespecting reality. But the delusion of power that results from the approach is very much a kind of drug- addictive, easily abused, destructive, able to distract from all the very real problems and challenges in the present.

So they behave like hard drug addicts do.

[theoceansnerves]

9. they are NOT stupid

they are not stupid at all.
they are lying. lying lying lying!

[TreasonousBastard]

10. Arrogant and unable to see that it was they that...

caused the mess.

But, it's a fairly normal reaction for someone whose hand is caught in the cookie jar to exclaim "Who, me?"

They have no choice but to try to spin and bullshit their way out of this mess, and hope for a miracle.

Of course, they could do the honorable thing and stand down...

[rpannier]

11. The most aggravating thing about them is...

they NEVER admit to doing anything wrong. It's amazing. I mean even Jesus Christ had his bouts of anger. He screamed at a fig tree for God's sake (no pun intended.)

[hippiegranny]

13. silver bullet

think about what came out of condi-liar's testimony. the catch phrase for the gop punditry to scoop up and repeat ad nauseum. they are masters at boiling everything down to slogan form, which then becomes "fact" for the masses. "there was no silver bullet to prevent 9/11..." it's all so p.r. driven and obvious that it was the prepared slogan for people to come away from that hearing with.

they're not only masterful liars, they are top notch sales people of the product.