Uncurious George

The Bush-gone-wobbly meme continues to roil the right/libertarian side of the Blogosphere. Here's Dan Drezner:

In the past week, the White House has shown itself to be enthusiastic about protectionism, profligate in its domestic spending, and passive in its foreign policy management. What's conservative about this?

Think I'm exaggerating? Go read Andrew Sullivan, Jacob Levy, Glenn Reynolds, Kim du Toit, the Spoons Experience, and yet more Andrew Sullivan. We're hardly monolithic in our politics, but there is a common denominator -- free markets, limited domestic government, robust foreign policy -- that this administration has left unsated.

With all due respect to the estimable Dr. Drezner, "What's conservative about this?" seems like the wrong question. What's new? might be more appropriate. President Bush is simply being President Bush -- a basically decent but profoundly uncurious guy who relies on those around him to do most of the heavy lifting. Not surprisingly, his policies -- or rather his twisting, turning, shifting policies -- tend to reflect these basic truths about the presidential character.

If you let your mind drift back to the misty days of 2000, you'll recall that the then-Governor's relative inexperience and lack of curiosity were widely debated. The GOP's stock answer was that he was a CEO who would assemble a strong team of advisers to guide him through his presidency. Democrats responded by asking what would happen if and when the Bush All Stars disagreed.

And now we know the answer to that question. Lacking either Ronald Reagan's fully-developed view of the world or Bill Clinton's intellectual firepower, this president, who prides himself on his steely resolve, vacillates: Rummy's up, Rummy's down. Powell's down, Powell's up. When the economists are in favor, protectionism's bad. When Rove's star is rising, steel tariffs and managed trade are all the fashion.

If it weren't so damaging to the country, all this palace intrigue might be amusing -- sort of a four-year-long season of Survivor where nobody gets voted off the island for good and weekly winners get to play with the Fourth ID. As it is, you just have to shake your head and hope that the right people have the president's ear at the right time.

As President Bush's treasury secretary could tell him -- if, indeed, it's Mr. Snow's turn in the box and the president is listening to him this week -- that's really no way to run a railroad.