Why Bush Can't Win

The National Review's Rich Lowry tells us about "W.’s Double Binds":

Sometimes a political figure becomes so hated that he can't do anything right in the eyes of his enemies. [Robert S.: Paging Bill Clinton!] President Bush has achieved this rare and exalted status. His critics are so blinded by animus that the internal consistency of their attacks on him no longer matters. For them, Bush is the double-bind president.

If he stumbles over his words, he is an embarrassing idiot. If he manages to cut taxes or wage a war against Saddam Hussein with bipartisan support, he is a manipulative genius.

Only one problem with this theory, Rich: no one thinks Bush is a manipulative genius. Karl Rove, maybe.

Read the rest to see how much sympathy you feel for Lowry's rather pedestrian thesis. Not particularly convincing.