Tell Me He's Smarter Than This....

In "O'Neill's Vanity Fair", Michael Kinsley sputters,

Speaking of blindsided, howzabout that killer quote describing Bush in Cabinet meetings as being "like a blind man in a roomful of deaf people." O'Neill says this is "the only way I can describe it," and I fear that may be true. It's vivid, and certainly sounds insulting. But what on earth does it mean? According to the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, it means Bush is "disengaged." The Washington Post story began, "President Bush showed little interest in policy discussions in his first two years in the White House, leading Cabinet meetings 'like a blind man in a roomful of deaf people . . . ."

I'm sorry, but how is being uninterested in policy like being a blind man in a roomful of deaf people? Are blind people uninterested in policy? Or, more accurately: Do blind people become less interested in policy when they find themselves in a room with deaf people? Does a blind man surrounded by deaf people talking policy issues think, "Oh, hell. These folks are going to go on and on and on about the problems of deaf people. Who needs that? I've got problems of my own." Is that O'Neill's point? And even if there is something about a roomfull of deaf people that makes a blind man disengage from policy issues, what does this have to do with President Bush and his Cabinet?

Is it truly that difficult for him to figure out? (Does anybody here need an explanation?)

I guess an alternative is that Kinsley thinks his readers are stupid, and hopes to confuse them. Either way, it doesn't say much about Kinsley.

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