Great question ...

Apologies for all the politics, but Steve Clemmons relates a late Bush-era situation, via GQ:

Finally, the president directed us to try to put elements of his proposal back into the text. He wanted to explain what he was seeking and to defend it. He especially wanted Americans to know that his plan would likely see a return on the taxpayers' investment. Under his proposal, he said, the federal government would buy troubled mortgages on the cheap and then resell them at a higher price when the market for them stabilized.

"We're buying low and selling high," he kept saying.

The problem was that his proposal didn't work like that. One of the president's staff members anxiously pulled a few of us aside. "The president is misunderstanding this proposal," he warned. "He has the wrong idea in his head." As it turned out, the plan wasn't to buy low and sell high. In some cases, in fact, Secretary Paulson wanted to pay more than the securities were likely worth in order to put more money into the markets as soon as possible. This was not how the president's proposal had been advertised to the public or the Congress. It wasn't that the president didn't understand what his administration wanted to do. It was that the treasury secretary didn't seem to know, changed his mind, had misled the president, or some combination of the three.

Yes, that's the Bush era all right. Later, Bush asked his staff:

"Why did I sign on to this proposal if I don't understand what it does?"

The answer to that one .... well, it's waiting for the ages.

Political Animals

Way back in January 2008, in the midst of the presidential campaign, I put a link away in a draft post thinking I'd get to it in a few days ... And now that political season is long past, we're through the dismal Bush years (even if Dick "Darth" Cheney is still on the airwaves defending torture at every opportunity, working on that long-range plan to save himself and his buddies from the extended jail time they deserve), and the hook of the story is way out of date. It's a good story, though, by NY Times science writer Natalie Angier, a reminder that politics - the disposition to make fundamental decisions in groups - is, after all, something we share with lots of other members of the animal, er, kingdom. So check it out. We're always, after all, in a political season.

"Maverick?" Whoa, Dude ...

Well, it's the season for politics here in the US, even in bucolic, New Agey Asheville. Why, just Monday Barack Obama, tucked away at the Grove Park Inn to prepare for his most recent debate with John McCain, stopped by my favorite barbecue place for lunch. Unfortunately, unlike Chall Gray, I wasn't there. Today, though, I came across a little news that might be of interest to Senator McCain, the would-be "maverick":

Samuel Augustus Maverick (July 23, 1803–September 2, 1870) was a Texas lawyer, politician, land baron and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. His name is the source of the term “maverick”

Lesley in comments over at TBogg, adds:

Follow up. A Different Jake H. in SadlyNo alerted me to this article in the NY Times on the infuriated Maverick family. A double dose of awesome.

“I’m just enraged that McCain calls himself a maverick,” said Terrellita Maverick, 82, a San Antonio native who proudly carries the name of a family that has been known for its progressive politics since the 1600s, when an early ancestor in Boston got into trouble with the law over his agitation for the rights of indentured servants.

Terrellita Maverick, sister of Maury Jr., is a member emeritus of the board of the San Antonio chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.

Considering the family’s long history of association with liberalism and progressive ideals, it should come as no surprise that Ms. Maverick insists that John McCain, who has voted so often with his party, “is in no way a maverick, in uppercase or lowercase.”

“It’s just incredible — the nerve! — to suggest that he’s not part of that Republican herd. Every time we hear it, all my children and I and all my family shrink a little and say, ‘Oh, my God, he said it again.’ ”

“He’s a Republican,” she said. “He’s branded.”

Branded by now in several other ways - and hopefully, in about four weeks, to be branded decisively in yet another.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Photo: The original Maverick, Samuel, thanks to Wikipedia.