We’re Tired of it Too

The Washington Post today reports that Team Bush members are tired because of their long workdays and never-ending workweeks:

The succession of crisis after crisis has taken its toll. Some in the White House sound frazzled. While there are few stories of aides nodding off in meetings, some duck outside during the day so the fresh air will wake them up. “We’re all burned out,” said one White House official who did not want to be named for fear of angering superiors. “People are just tired.”

White House officials are never genuinely away from the job. Tied to their BlackBerrys and cellular telephones, they are often called to duty even during rare vacations. Weekends are often just another workday. Hadley, for one, schedules a full day of meetings every Saturday. Card comes to the White House on days off to go bicycle riding with Bush.

Golly, who knew it was so hard and unpleasant? Okay, so here’s a solution: stop trying to govern and manage EVERYTHING. Stop trying to create policy about everything. Stop trying to administer and supervise the whole damn world, or even the entire United States. Take naps. Read Books. Bake bread. Smell flowers. Go on vacation to far away places (rather then bomb them) and never come back. Presidents of other countries — smaller ones, less powerful ones, but no less free, safe or affluent — and their staffs certainly don’t have such awful work schedules, largely because they don’t aspire to much. Near as I can tell, no one (aside from a handful of commentators and alleged intellectuals in DC and New York) ever wanted Potus to run the world anyway.

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1:49 pm on March 13, 2006