When Ron Suskind described a conversation he had with a senior adviser to Bush about what reality meant, you could have been forgiven for believing he was being metaphorical.
The aide said that guys like me were ”in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who ”believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ”That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. ”We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
As it turns out, the adviser was being more literal than we thought, at least if the “truthiness” of the right wing is any indiciation. Welcome to the Bizzaro Bush world.
On april 1st, Phoenix Fox 10 News runs a poll to see who is “the most foolish American” and the host proclaims—Britney Spears the winner! The problem was that Britney only racket up 33% of the vote, less than Bush at 40%.
Could this explain why Bush’s cousin at Fox news said that Dubya had won Florida during the 2000 presidential election. when all the other networks, guided by the polls, were under the impression Gore was leading?
More recently, the ever vigilant genius at Instapundit has been fighting his own battles with reality.
As noted, however, Reid is hardly alone in this regard. This kind of thing may explain why Congress’s approval numbers are so low.
Reynolds nemesis introduces an concept that is anathema to the right – perspective.
The latest ABC/Washington Post poll has Congressional approval at 44%. That’s not only an increase of 8% in the same poll since the elections (with disapprove down 6%) — it’s the highest overall approval numbers for Congress in over two years.
A good historical graph of Congressional approval is here. Also note that 44% is a better number than Congress was getting in the first few months of ’95 after the GOP took control in the midterms of ’94.
Now we know that they are really mean when they say the surge is working.