Not respected in the world after being exposed as a "great deceiver," yet our president prides himself on being a good judge of character and has enjoyed, after entertaining several foreign leaders, making bold exclamations such as:

"I looked into his eyes and saw a man I can trust."

And what are his credentials to expect us to trust his instincts? Moreover, who is he to consider himself a good judge of character? One must have character to recognize it!

Recent manifestations of his great instincts are evidenced in Maliki (the one whose eyes he looked into), who is unwilling to parrot Bush, denounce Hizballah in the current Israeli conflict; and, in his Russian counterpart (the one whose eyes he looked into) who prepares to make delivery of weapons to our enemies.

The fact that he's used this phrase, at least twice, describing men he barely knew, is further evidence it's all theater for him. Such statements are totally bogus, transparently political ego-bolstering, more cowboy swagger. Having little substance, himself, he's incapable of making a character judgment of any world leaders.

Remarkable! He's badly eroded our democracy, yet he has appointed himself "the decider," the one person capable of saving the world by democratizing it. However, the world is not so easily fooled, sees him for what he is, more clever than Americans, they're not buying it.

From Huffington Post today:

"ROGERS, Ark., July 15 — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, returning to her red-state ties, chastised Democrats Saturday for taking on issues that arouse conservatives and turn out Republican voters rather than finding consensus on mainstream subjects.

Without mentioning specific subjects like gay marriage, Mrs. Clinton said: “We do things that are controversial. We do things that try to inflame their base.”

“We are wasting time,” the senator told a group of Democratic women here, on part of a two-day swing through a state that could provide an alternate hub to New York if she starts a national political campaign."

From Noam Chomsky's "Imperial Ambitions - Conversations on the Post 9/11 World":

"You can read it in this morning's New York Times. There is an interesting article about Karl Rove, the president's manager, who teaches him what to say and do -- his minder is what they would call him in Iraq. Rove is not directly involved in the war planning, and neither is Bush. That's in the hands of other people. But his goal, he says, is "to shape perceptions of Mr. Bush as a wartime leader and to prepare for the re-election campaign that will start as soon as the war ends," so that the Republicans can push through their domestic agenda. That means tax cuts -- they say for the economy, but they mean for the rich -- and other programs that are designed to benefit an extremely small sector of the ultra-wealthy and privileged and that will have the effect of harming the mass of the population.

Even more significant than these short-term goals, through this is not mentioned in the New York Times article, is the long-term effort to destroy the institutional basis for social support systems, to eliminate programs such as Social Security that are based on the conception that people have to have some concern for one another. The idea that we should feel sympathy and solidarity, that we should care whether the disabled widow across town is able to eat, has to be driven from our minds. That's a large part of the domestic agenda, quite apart from the shifting wealth and power toward ever narrower sectors.

AND THE WAY TO ACHIEVE THAT -- since people aren't going to accept it otherwise -- IS TO MAKE PEOPLE AFRAID. IF PEOPLE ARE FRIGHTENED THAT THEIR SECURITY IS THREATENED, THEY WILL GRAVITATE TOWARD STRONG LEADERS. THEY WILL TRUST THE REPUBLICANS TO PROTECT THEM FROM ENEMIES AND THEREFORE SUPPRESS THEIR OWN CONCERNS AND INTERESTS."

"Last Sunday, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that Rep. John Murtha said he believed the “American presence in Iraq is more dangerous to world peace than nuclear threats from North Korea or Iran.” The report was quickly seized on by conservative media — including Brit Hume, Bill O’Reilly, Joe Scarborough and Tucker Carlson — to attack Murtha.

The story was false. Murtha was citing an international public opinion poll, not expressing his own views. On Wednesday, the Sun-Sentinel issued a correction. We urged ThinkProgress readers to contact the television outlets that pushed the innaccurate story and correct the record for their viewers.

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Tucker Carlson (who said Murtha was “in the thrall” of anti-American activists) haven’t bothered to inform their viewers that their attacks were based on a statement Murtha never made."

Email Joe Scarborough and Tucker Carlson:
joe@msnbc.com
Tucker@msnbc.com