Suckers and Rubes

The truth always comes out at unexpected moments:

The president sat down on Friday with a small group of sympathetic conservative journalists -- Bush is generally at his most comfortable around those who already convinced how right he is -- and offered some insights into his perspective on Iraq.

"[L]ast fall, if I had been part of this polling, if they had called upstairs and said, do you approve of Iraq I would have been on the 66 percent who said, 'No I don't approve.' That's why I made the decision I made. To get in a position where I would be able to say 'Yes, I approve.'"

Mark Kleiman translated the remarks for the rest of us.

"I'm not nearly as stupid as my supporters. Back when I was telling the world that things in Iraq were going well, and you folks were helping me by calling anyone who said otherwise a traitor, I knew we were all lying."

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