Dissent Must Be Encouraged…
By Read Benen on Rove. Also, RB sends this delightful transcript:
MR. DeMUTH: Another book that you famously read was Eliot Cohen’s “Supreme Command.” And he later went to work for you.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, he did.
MR. DeMUTH: Do you think he got it right in that book?
THE PRESIDENT: I can’t even remember the book. (Laughter.) I remember reading it, but give me a synopsis. (Laughter.)
MR. DeMUTH: That —
THE PRESIDENT: You can’t remember it either. (Laughter.)
MR. DeMUTH: No. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: Just teasing. Did he work for you at AEI? Is that why you’re —
MR. DeMUTH: He was on our Council of Academic Advisers.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, okay. I did read it.
MR. DeMUTH: The essential point is that in history, in wartime, Presidents do well not leaving the war to the military, but being the supreme commander themselves.
God. Shades of 8:30am American Foreign Policy discussion section, except that the frat boy at the end of the table who clearly didn’t do the reading happens to be the President of the United States…