Via TGW, here's Paul Krugman's latest. He takes the rather bold position that the people currently in charge of America are not very nice people. Excerpts follow.
"Be a mensch," my parents told me. Literally, a mensch is a person. But by implication, a mensch is an upstanding person who takes responsibility for his actions.
The people now running America aren't mensches.
Officials in this administration never take responsibility for their actions. When something goes wrong, it's always someone else's fault.
Was it always like this? I don't want to romanticize our political history, but I don't think so. Think of Dwight Eisenhower, who wrote a letter before D-Day accepting the blame if the landings failed.
President Bush is definitely not a mensch; his inability to admit mistakes or take responsibility for failure approaches the pathological. He surrounds himself with subordinates who share his aversion to facing unpleasant realities.
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