AS SOMEBODY WHO doesn't have the slightest feeling one way or another about baseball star Rafael Palmeiro, I have to say that it seems pretty clear Palmeiro has used steroids. Palmeiro recently tested positive for steroid use. And then there's former teammate Jose Canseco's allegation that he and Palmeiro both used steroids, which is impossible to verify but would seem to explain why Palmeiro's annual home run total nearly doubled after Canseco joined him on the Texas Rangers. None of this is ironclad proof, but it seems the simplest way to reconcile the available data.
President Bush, though, doesn't see it this way at all. When asked about Palmeiro's positive steroid test, Bush — who knew Palmeiro when the president owned the Rangers — replied, "Rafael Palmeiro is a friend. He testified in public and I believe him. He's the kind of person that's going to stand up in front of the Klieg lights and say he didn't use steroids, and I believe him."
This statement perfectly crystallizes Bush's thinking. Facts don't matter to him. What matters is how he feels about the person in question.
In other words, Bush bases his decisions on how he feels about an individual or about an issue. Facts become secondary in supporting his intuitive decision of an individual or an issue, or the facts that may contradict his reasoning are discarded, ignored, or the messenger is discredited. Bush does not arrive at a decision of an issue through a careful analysis and reasoning using facts. You can see this type oreasoningng in almost every decision of his presidency. In the Iraq war, Bush's argument for going to war was that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction (remember the mushroom clouds over New York?). When facts started surfacing that Iraq did not have WMDs, Bush changed the argument that Iraq was harboring terrorists, or Saddam was killing his own people, or that Saddam was just a bad guy. The facts of an issue meant nothing to the Bush White House. Instead it is to show the intuitive, emotional side of the argument--we are sending the fight against the terrorists to Iraq, so that the terrorists will not take the fight here in the U.S. And since Bush is using his intuition--coupled with a strong religious belief system--Bush will always be right and correct in his decisions, based on his intuition and moral convictions. He will be right, regardless of any facts and information contradicting his decisions.
You can not win a debate with this type of individual.
1 comment:
I would say that Bush does not have intuition. To me intuition is a trait indicative of high intellect. The ability to take all of the facts and sort through all of the data, some of it contradictory and come up with a 'yeah, this what this means'. A breakthough and leap. That's how discoveries are made in math, physics and other sciences. Bush has the mind and desires of a 3 year old. "This is what I want, this is what I believe, therefore that is the truth. Facts don't matter. My opinion is the only thing that matters. The only thing important is what I want."
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