I’m really baffled by the level to which a person can be elected President of the United States and be this much of a dolt:

?I sensed a frustration with the lack of progress on the bigger picture of Iraq generally ? that we continue to lose a lot of lives, it continues to sap our budget,? said one person who attended the meeting. ?The president wants the people in Iraq to get more on board to bring success.?

That’s inbetween ducking the assassination attempts? Get more on board? Give it the old college try?

More generally, the participants said, the president expressed frustration that Iraqis had not come to appreciate the sacrifices the United States had made in Iraq, and was puzzled as to how a recent anti-American rally in support of Hezbollah in Baghdad could draw such a large crowd. ?I do think he was frustrated about why 10,000 Shiites would go into the streets and demonstrate against the United States,? said another person who attended.

Stunning.

One participant in the lunch, Carole A. O?Leary, a professor at American University who is also doing work in Iraq with a State Department grant, said Mr. Bush expressed the view that ?the Shia-led government needs to clearly and publicly express the same appreciation for United States efforts and sacrifices as they do in private.?

Essentially they should commit political hari-kari to make Bush feel better and then allow more radical people to take over. What a great analysis.

The White House began to open its doors to a wider range of views earlier this year, after acknowledging that months of complaints after Hurricane Katrina that the president and his team were isolated ? ?living in a bubble? was a frequent refrain ? had gotten through. But that accelerated after Joshua B. Bolten became White House chief of staff in the spring.

Wait for it:

?They wanted new insight, so they could better understand the arena in which they are making policy,? said Mr. Nasr, author of ?The Shia Revival.? He said he got no sense that the Bush administration was contemplating a shift in its Iraq policy.

Some who have been brought into past meetings with President Bush, even fierce critics of the conduct of the Iraq war, give credit to the White House for beginning to listen to alternate viewpoints.

They are listening and then ignoring it all. But that’s worth reporting as evidence of the new attitude of openness?

So….now, NOW, it’s a good thing to start listening to alternate viewpoints? Now.

Holy Shit is this country in trouble. 2 1/2 more years of Alice in Wonderland and I can’t even begin to grasp what else these people can fuck up.