George Bush hates poor people like I hate leprechauns.

Remember when Kanye made that statement at an awards show about our President not liking black people? I have a different theory: George Bush doesn't believe in poor people. Whenever he gets a question at a press conference about the flailing economy, he responds by claiming that the economy is actually doing well and growing and how great things actually are.

At first, I thought he was just stupid. Now, I think he's just insulated. He doesn't know any poor (or even middle class) people. Their very existence is kind of theoretical to him, and his self-imposed isolation from all forms of media cuts him off from the stories and opinions of anyone he doesn't actually encounter in his day-to-day activities.

So when he makes these sweeping tax cuts that bankrupt programs intended to help the poor and instead puts the money in his rich friends pockets, of course everyone he thinks is worth paying attention to is telling him that the tax cuts are a roaring success. From their perspective, the economy is doing great! Then these writers-of-fiction called journalists come at him with a different story: people are hurting, getting laid off, losing their homes... who's he going to believe? The rather self-satisfied air with which he touts his avoidance of newspapers and television media (with the possible exception of Fox news, one assumes) is all the answer we need.

It's not surprising, then, that he's able to dismiss the plight of the poor so easily: they're not real! He would have the same reaction to someone complaining that cell phones mess up the TV reception in the aliens space-station on the moon.

To be fair, I think that Bush is suffering an extreme form of a condition that's pandemic to the halls of political power. Politics is isolating, and the ability to remember what's real and what's important is gradually diminished and replaced by what's politically expedient and achievable. "Seasoned" politicians are in constant danger of believing that political victories that mostly re-label things and create photo-ops are actually changing the quality of people's lives. Give me a candidate that's long on idealism and short on pragmatism. I'd rather support someone in a losing fight for a real solution than a winning fight for nicer deck chairs on the Titanic.

- "Heh heh heh. Ooh, yeah, right, Lisa. A wonderful, magical animal."