The president gives up?

Here's an interesting article published by The Nation entitled, "George Bush Gives Up". I'm not sure that's really what has happened but the author certainly makes a case for it. See what you think:

George Bush has given up.

We should have seen this coming. During the first debate of the fall 2004 campaign, a weary and frustrated Bush repeatedly referred to how the presidency had proven to be a difficult job for him. Again and again, the commander-in-chief responded to questions about the missteps, mistakes and misdeeds of his first term by pleading that, "It's hard work."

The guy was clearly overwhelmed a year ago. So it can't really come as much of surprise that he has thrown in the towel.

The evidence of his surrender is all around. The man who spent years denying global warming is now borrowing talking points from Jimmy Carter to call for energy conservation. He can't even convince himself -- let alone anyone else -- that the "mission-accomplished" occupation of Iraq is functional, let alone a success story. He has essentially abandoned his primary domestic-policy initiative for 2005, admitting during a Rose Garden press conference that there is a "diminished appetite" for his scheme to privatize Social Security. And when it came to what is arguably the most important appointment of his presidency -- the selection of a replacement for the critical "swing" justice on the U.S. Supreme Court – he didn't even try.

In defending his selection of his attorney, Harriet Miers, to succeed retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Bush claimed that, "I picked the best person I could find."

He obviously did not look very hard. Maybe that's because the guy who used to tell him who to nominate for judicial openings, Karl Rove, is busy trying to avoid a indictment by a federal grand jury. Maybe it is because Vice President Dick Cheney's office is in crisis, as the veep's chief of staff, "Scooter" Libby, is targeted by the same investigation into who in the White House revealed the identity of an intelligence operative in order to punish the husband of that operative, Ambassador Joe Wilson, for revealing that the administration had warped intelligence in order to make the "case" for invading Iraq.

Whatever the explanation, the Miers nomination is a signal of surrender.

Maybe.

A person commenting on this article, however, said the following:

I think the Miers nomination is more proof of Bush's narcissism. Narcissists, when challenged and pressured, fall deeper into their narcissism, thinking it will save them. Bush went with Miers because her sole qualification was her loyalty and devotion to him. His narcissism tells him that by putting someone like that forward, everyone else will see how great he is.

Narcissism is a horrid personality disorder, and Bush is swimming in it.

Personally, I vote for the narcissism explanation.