It never ceases to amaze me how liberals can at once accuse the president of being stupid, dumb, illiterate, and a whole host of other descriptions indicating his lack of intelligence while simultaneously giving him credit from some of the best planning and strategy anyone has ever seen in orchestrating all the events they claim he is responsible for. How can an idiot be so successful at thwarting Democrat plans? And if Bush is indeed and idiot, what does that say about Democrats and their inability to defeat him in general?

The list of events liberals believe George Bush orchestrated to raise his standing and hurt Democrat prospects is impressive indeed. A Google search for the term “Bush orchestrated” turns up all of the following.

• the 9/11 attacks
• the Katrina disaster
• the Valerie Plame affair
• the story of the interdiction of an Islamic plot to blow up airliners en route to the US to raise his approval ratings
• lower gas prices prior to this election

Given sufficient I have no doubt the list could grow larger than the totality of this blog. Nevertheless, the point is made that liberals have given George Bush tremendous credit for planning and implementing some pretty big conspiracies. Yet at the same time they never tire of telling us just how simple minded, how stupid Bush is. Once again, a simple Google search for the term “Bush is an idiot” turns up 3,130,000 hits.

Whether or not the Hussein verdict will have any impact on the election remains to be seen. My own feeling is that if there is an effect, it will be so small as to be immeasurable. But Democrats love a conspiracy and they particularly love an excuse. And make no mistake, this charge of Bush involvement in the timing of the Hussein verdict is all about Democrats having an excuse if they don’t prevail on Tuesday. As Eric Hoffer put it in The Passionate State of Mind:

There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement. For an achievement does not settle anything permanently. We still have to prove our worth anew each day; we have to prove that we are as good today as we were yesterday. But when we have a valid alibi for not achieving anything we are fixed, so to speak, for life.

The fact is, Bush is no idiot. If Democrats actually paid attention instead of looking for excuses they’d understand that. In the present case, not only have the accused him of orchestrating the verdict to be announced today, they also lament the fact that he has no control over the Iraqi government in general and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in particular. So once again, the Democrat schizophrenia is manifested with diametrically opposed positions regarding Bush.

One thing is certain, Bush does benefit from change in subject. Democrats have worked tirelessly to take national security away from Bush with little success. While many on both sides are unhappy with the situation in Iraq, most people support the overall “war on terror.” Democrats have had little success changing that

Kim Jong Il’s actions work to refocus the debate back on national security and away from the Foley scandal, good news for Republicans trying to hold on to their congressional majorities. Democrats, meanwhile, are working feverishly to keep Foley at the top of the news. The Daily Kos today has little mention of North Korea. The top three posts are about the Foley scandal and Democrat predictions about conservative voters. The top post, Cheer and Jeers: Tuesday, is a collection of quotes from liberals about the Foley scandal. Quoted are Cokie Roberts, Maureen Dowd, Eleanor Clift and Clair McCaskill, liberals all. Dowd, undoubtedly an expert on the subject, expounds about what conservative women think about Republican leadership’s action in the Foley case.

The first paragraph of this post is, of course, fabricated, although I feel confident that some of the loonier moonbats on the left actually believe it. Liberals are not happy that the debate is moving away from Foley. They are working overtime trying to refocus national attention back on House leadership and their perceived failures. Look for liberal bloggers and pundits to work overtime over the next couple of weeks in an attempt to knock North Korea out of the top new spot. They want Foley leading the news cycle and they believe they can keep him there until election day.

Unfortunately for liberals, national and international events are not particularly cooperative. Events have a way of moving and happening in unpredictable ways so the best plans liberals can come up with stand little chance of controlling the news for more than a day or so. Voters, too, know more than they are given credit for, when they are being manipulated and liberals run the risk of alienating voters with constant barrages of negativity.

All in all the next few weeks look to be politically very interesting. The mid-term elections have shaped up to be as close and as divisive as the last two presidential elections have been, largely because of the divisive nature of the extreme left. Win or lose, it should be a fun few weeks watching liberals squirm and gyrate trying to find the story that will sink Republicans.

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