Indictment

No, not the Plame/Fitzgerald/Rove/Libby kind. Not quite yet.

Rather, I'm referring to Peggy Noonan's current column, "A Separate Peace", in which she brilliantly puts her finger on the growing sense of uncertainty and concern that I have been feeling for the past several years. I suspect many Americans can relate. I highly recommend giving her column a read, because she very ably puts words to feelings I've been struggling with expressing for a while.

Her thesis is basically this: the growing number and complexity of serious issues facing the country is overwhelming the government; we Americans are detecting this, and are sensing impending doom; sadly, the "elite" members of government agencies responsible for shoring up the government have retreated to self-preservation and have abdicated their responsibilities.

She's right on the money about the problem- but her conclusion is totally off the mark. It's not the "elites" who are primarily responsible for our collective feeling of uncertainty- it's the utter and complete lack of solid leadership from our president.

We are experiencing a crisis of leadership in this country. For the past four years, George W. Bush has been our president, but he has not been our leader. After our country was attacked on 9/11, he made a few speeches and invaded Afghanistan, which were the correct (and obvious) things to do. The country rallied around him, but not because- as is often asserted- he demonstrated strong leadership. We rallied because the country needed to rally.

In the years since 9/11, Bush has alienated half of the country by choosing to appease his ultraconservative base, rather than the nation as a whole. This decision demonstrates a political calculation, but certainly not national leadership.

Foreign policy has been a disaster. The day after 9/11, America was viewed by most of the world in a way that echoed our own optimistic idealism. Nearly all of that has been squandered by Bush's post-9/11 foreign policy decisions. It didn't have to be that way- 9/11 itself didn't doom us to be hated by the world- it was bad leadership that made it that way. Think about the gravity of what was squandered.

Massive deficits? Our president lacks the leadership to cut his ultraconservatives off at the tax-cut pump. A real leader would have the strength to do this for the greater good.

Disaster preparedness?

Fundamental governmental competence?

The complete and total leadership vacuum in the president's office is what is making all of this seem so hopeless. Government has always been difficult. Problems have always been getting more complex and challenging. But a good leader is able to calm and comfort a nation, and give them confidence that its challenges will be met. That is precisely what a leader is there to do, and precisely what our president has been unable to do.

George W. Bush is a terrible president. He is a horrible leader. He is an unintelligent, uninterested, and uncaring individual. It's a testament to the strength of the country that things aren't even worse than they are.

I've given up trying to be measured, elegant, even practical about my feelings- I am simply overwhelmed with dismay at the fundamental incompetence of our president and the consequences we are all facing as a result. The emperor has no clothes. History will look back at this administration with even harsher (though certainly more well written and illustrated) words than mine.

Peggy Noonan hits it right on the head, but her partisanship prevents her from fingering the real culprit. We're not suffering a crisis of the "elites"- it's just that our president really, really sucks.