9/11... Protect America... Defeat Terrorists Overseas... Boxer Shorts at K-Mart...

Does this man have only one answer to any question posed to him? Seriously, George Bush is becoming Rain Man (aka Raymond, the character played by Dustin Hoffman), and instead of being obsessed by boxer shorts from K-Mart, all he can mumble about in reference to any question, to any conversation starter at a cocktail party is something to do with how he realized that 9-fing-11 changed everything.

You gotta go over to Crooks and Liars and check out this video from this morning's speech in Cleveland and question/answer session. Here's the first question posed to him:

My question is that author and former Nixon administration official Kevin Phillips in his latest book, "American Theocracy," discusses what has been called radical Christianity and its growing involvement into government and politics. He makes the point that members of your administration have reached out to prophetic Christians who see the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism as signs of the Apocalypse. Do you believe this, that the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism are signs of the Apocalypse?

Alright, admittedly that might be a bit out of left (well, really right) field. But instead of giving it any consideration, he laughs at it and then goes onto the standard schpiel of terrorists crashing into the Two Towers... and how he realized we're in a war and when you see a threat you gotta deal with it... and we thought we were safe cos we had two oceans protecting us... and that his most important job is to protect the American people... and that the first option for a president isn't necessarily military, but diplomacy... and that's what you're seeing with Iran right now... and he's getting off subject not because he doesn't want to answer the question (which elicits a laugh)... but, by the by, while we're talking about Iran... Iran is threatening Israel... it's a threat to a strong alliance... we will use our military might to protect Israel... solve issue diplomatically... united message... loud and clear to Iranians... unacceptable... so to answer your question...

Ah, here we come to the meat of the matter:

"I take a practical view of doing the job you want me to do, which is how we defeat an enemy that still wants to hurt us. And how do we deal with threats before they fully materialize. What do we do to protect us from harm? That's my job. And that job came home on September the 11th..."

Oh Jesus, here we go again. He's like the West Wing's fictional Republican presidential nominee Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda) in reverse. In last night's episode, Vinick went back to the site of the nuclear disaster in his home state of California and took questions for nearly three hours until he wore out the press corps. In typical Bush style, he just trots out the same fucking talking points that Karl has been handing him for the past four+ years and keeps repeating and repeating until there's not a focused brain in the house.

Anyhoo, the President also got a great laugh when, after a lot of long questions, he laughed and wondered, "Anybody here work in this town?" Remember, he's in Cleveland. ThinkProgress reminds us of what the BushCo administration has meant to the livlihood of Cleveland:

- 5.8 percent: Cleveland unemployment rate, Jan. 2006
- 4.5 percent: Cleveland unemployment rate, Jan. 2001

- 5.3 percent: Ohio unemployment rate, Jan. 2006
- 4.0 percent: Ohio unemployment rate, Jan. 2001

- 31.3 percent: Cleveland poverty rate, 2003
- 24.3 percent: Cleveland poverty rate, 2001