Bush Bad for Not Being Poll-Driven? Hersh Harps on W's Long-Range View

November 29th, 2005 8:00 AM

Give me a moment, please.  Got to let my head stop spinning.  Been watching the Today show.

See, I thought we all agreed it was bad for presidents to be poll-driven, in the image of a Bill Clinton deciding everything from foreign policy to vacation destinations based on the latest shift in public opinion.

Turns out I was wrong, at least according to this morning's Today.

Matt Lauer interviewed New Yorker reporter Seymour Hersh, or "Sy" as Lauer chummily called him, regarding Hersh's piece in the magazine's current edition.  As Lauer described the article, it portrays Pres. Bush as believing he has a "divine mission" to bring democracy to Iraq.  Asked who was telling him that, Hersh responded:

Some of the people in the last few months with whom I've been talking for years are suddenly opening up and telling me some of  their deeper concerns about this president's inability to adjust, to accept new information.  I think he really does think that he's not going to be judged by today. The events on the ground will be judged in 20 years, 30 years or whatever.

But, but, but . . . isn't that good?  Don't we want our presidents to set policy based on the nation's long-run best interests rather than on the ephemeral views of the day?  Apparently not, per the MSM, at least so long as George Bush is in office.