Why Bush hates Chavez

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez acts inappropriately for a President. This offends W, who is a real President. Not a President of a two-bit banana-republic. Bananas. Jeez. Bush is President of an Oil-Republic. And of course Oil Republicans don't like people who nationalize oil companies. But that's not the main thing. The main thing is Chavez's odious behavior. Consider this.

On August 1 Chavez appeared on national television to announce he was deeply disappointed about the failure to meet the government's goal of constructing 120,000 new housing units. Only 43,000 had actually been built. So whose fault was that? In this country we know how to handle things like this. Whose fault? Someone else's. Not this nutcase Chavez. He blamed himself! From the excellent new blog, UnCapitalist Journal:

Chavez made the comments yesterday during his weekly television program Aló Presidente, where he also announced that his government is investing $2.8 billion in the housing program.

[snip]

Chavez said, “This will not do, with all due respect, this is not the way. … at this speed we will not even reach the corner.”

Chavez went on to say that the most common letters the president’s office receives are requests for housing. “I am supremely disappointed with myself and my government on this subject and the first responsibility is mine. I am giving time to see the results, but the signs are bad,” said Chavez.

One can sympathize with Bush's exasperation at this kind of behavior. It sets an incredibly bad example for citizens, who will come to expect assumption of responsibility whenever things go the least bit wrong (no preparation for an influenza pandemic, Iraq, Enron, Plame-scandal, Abu-Ghraib, Schiavo debacle, etc.). This is a slippery-slope. If a Chief Executive starts apologizing for mistakes, there will be no end to it. And that would be bad.

Because we all want an end to it.

Corrected link: This is the correct link to the Uncapitalist Journal.