Sometimes the policymakers themselves seize upon incompetence as a - TopicsExpress

Sometimes the policymakers themselves seize upon incompetence as a cover. [For example, when the Iran-Contra affair was discovered, President Reagan pleaded incompetence.] His admission of incompetence was eagerly embraced by various analysts and pundits who prefer to see their leaders as suffering from innocent ignorance rather than deliberate deception. Subsequent testimony by his subordinates, however, revealed that Reagan was not as dumb as he was pretending to be, and that he had played an active and deciding role in the entire Iran-contra affair. No less a political personage than Henry Kissinger repeatedly pretended to innocent ignorance and incompetence when confronted with the dirty role he and his cohorts played . . . .” This strategy of “playing dumb” and acting incompetent has, in fact, long been employed by leaders on both the left and the right. Many liberals and old fashioned conservatives have been suckered by this dumb and dumber act. Let’s take a look at the actual history of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld for insight into whether they are incompetent leaders. After Bush lost his bid for congress because he was perceived as an over-educated, “spoiled rich kid from back East”, he cultivated a bumbling, “good old boy” image, and then started winning his political elections. That’s right: Bush actually cultivated a bumbling, misspeaking mannerism. washingtonsblog/2011/05/are-our-leaders-really-incompetent-or-just-pretending.html