The Difference Between Bush and Competence

Just got off a Joe Biden conference call and the Senator made this absolutely wonderful point: If the President was told that there was new intelligence about Iran's nuclear program last August and he didn't ask what that intelligence was, as Bush claimed this morning, "If that's true then this is...the most incompetent President in history."

Well, we kind of suspected that. But there's another, more recent efflorescence of incompetence here: Say you're the President and the CIA walks into your office on Wednesday, November 27--two briefers plus General Michael Hayden--and tells you, with "high" confidence, that Iran stopped its nuclear program in 2003. What do you do? Do you simply let it leak to the press (within 5 days) or do you try to leverage it--contact our allies, contact the Iranians, say to them: "Look, we're willing to tell the whole world that we were wrong and you no longer have a nuclear program, if you're willing to stop enrichment, at least temporarily, and negotiate a deal. If not, we, all of us--including the Russians and the Chinese--will impose a new, stiffer 3rd round of sanctions.
"And furthermore,We're also willing to say publicly that we're not interested in regime change, to start lifting sanctions, put diplomatic recognition and WTO on the table... if you're willing to expand the conversation to include joining the middle east peace process and stopping your support for terrorism.

The latter, of course, didn't happen...because this Administration simply is incapable of thinking in creative diplomatic terms.