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Straight from Kevin Drum and Newsweek:

THE BUBBLE....More on George Bush's "bubble" from Newsweek:

The reality [of Katrina], say several aides who did not wish to be quoted because it might displease the president, did not really sink in until Thursday night.

....How this could beóhow the president of the United States could have even less "situational awareness," as they say in the military, than the average American about the worst natural disaster in a centuryóis one of the more perplexing and troubling chapters in a story that, despite moments of heroism and acts of great generosity, ranks as a national disgrace.

President George W. Bush has always trusted his gut. He prides himself in ignoring the distracting chatter, the caterwauling of the media elites, the Washington political buzz machine. He has boasted that he doesn't read the papers. His doggedness is often admirable. It is easy for presidents to overreact to the noise around them.

But it is not clear what President Bush does read or watch, aside from the occasional biography and an hour or two of ESPN here and there. Bush can be petulant about dissent; he equates disagreement with disloyalty.

....Late last week, Bush was, by some accounts, down and angry. But another Bush aide described the atmosphere inside the White House as "strangely surreal and almost detached." At one meeting described by this insider, officials were oddly self-congratulatory, perhaps in an effort to buck each other up. Life inside a bunker can be strange, especially in defeat.

And then there's this from Kevin:

INTERESTING TIMES....John Podhoretz is a charter member of the lunatic right, but even he thinks that Hurricane Katrina might have provoked a sea change in both the way the press treats George Bush as well as the way his own staff treats him:

What's interesting about the stories [in Time and Newsweek] is that they suggest there's been a change at the Bush White House because they feature unnamed sources saying nasty things about the president. One of the remarkable aspects of this White House has been the fanatical loyalty its people have displayed toward Bush ó even talking to friendly journalists like me, it's been nearly impossible to get past the feel-good spin. If that's really changing, if staffers are beginning to separate themselves from their boss emotionally and indulge in on-background carping and cavilling, then two things are true. 1) Bush is about to suffer the agony that has afflicted all previous recent administrations ó the "who said that!" rages that distract our leaders and make them feel isolated in their jobs. 2) News stories are about to get a whole lot more interesting, and White House reporters are going to stop complaining about how hard it is to cover Bush.

Hmmm. What's that old Chinese proverb about interesting times? With that in mind, I think it would be very nice indeed if news stories about Bush suddenly got "a whole lot more interesting."

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