The Presidential Peter Principle

Amazing, BushCorp is actually firing an incompetent employee.

I just wonder what award he'll be receiving.

Which brings to mind the question. Just how does a US administration, with all the resources this great nation can provide, still manage to do so many things so badly?

Sure, symptoms are easy to spot: the preference for faith over science, the preference for corporations over small business and labor, the Nixonian secrecy, the nearly psychotic inability to admit error.

But why?

I begin to agree with those that believe BushCorp's reliance of corporate style management is its greatest flaw. Because, although in theory corporate management allows for the best use of the best minds available, what it frequently results in is the promotion of those who are best at currying the boss's favor. And since BushCorp's "Board of Directors" is, in effect a largely inattentive electorate, and its stockholders can't dump their stock on any given day, even the usual corporate restraints are lacking.

So one gets thinking like this:

WASHINGTON - There's an intense damage-control debate at the White House over whether President Bush should name a Katrina relief czar, and the idea's backers are pushing former mayor Rudy Giuliani as a dream candidate.

But some top Bush aides think a brand-name disaster boss like Giuliani, dubbed "America's Mayor" for his leadership after 9/11, or former secretary of state Colin Powell would remind Americans of the administration's sluggish initial response to the hurricane.

"You don't want someone overshadowing the President," said an official in the "ride it out" camp. "That leaves him looking weak." [Emphasis mine-CK]

Talk about taking the Peter Principle to the next level. Don't hire the competent, because it demonstrates Bush's own shortcomings.

So, the best leadership this administration can handle is limited to a not-too-bright, fake good ol' boy who likes to play dress-up (manly togs only of course), whose claims to "strong leadership" are bolstered by keeping those in sub-ordinate leadership positions around him even more incompetent than himself.

Michael Brown suddenly makes much more sense.