bush, a very successful president

this from will durst at 23/6:

Say what you will about the President, he knows how to turn the switch that greases the gears of the Republican Party Cash Machine. Oh sure, he may have an approval rating lower than a puppy-eating cobra, but this puppy-eating cobra lays the golden egg. The last seven years have been very very good for America's wealthy which means the wealthy still like George Bush very very much and they will pay very very good money to hang out and have their pictures taken with him. He's not only a rich person, he's a rich person's rich person.

so, sure, not all extremely wealthy people make these choices based solely on economic self-interest, but still.

durst's post is about mccain's relationship to bush and money, but it gave me a way to understand what i perceive to be bush's continuing pride in the job he has done/is doing. maybe it's not cluelessness. if the people around him around him are genuinely delighted with his presidency, then he can see himself through that lens and continue to feel good about it, despite . . . well, everything. which is how he appears to me: self-confident, pleased, laid-back, spending his lame-duckness the way seniors who've done well spend that last bit of high school.