"Manchurian Candidate?"

I've seen several people, in blogs and elsewhere, refer to Our Beloved Leader as the "Manchurian Candidate." That got me thinking about the movie - not the lame remake starring Denzel Washington, but the superior original, starring Frank Sinatra and Lawrence Harvey as Raymond Shaw.

Raymond Shaw was a generally intelligent person who was brainwashed to be a killing machine.

Dubya wasn't (at least, as far as I know - his and Kerry's academic credentials notwithstanding).

Bush is not Raymond Shaw, dear reader - he's Johnny Iselin, the US Senator played by James Gregory. Iselin was essentially a clueless dunderhead who said whatever his wife told him to say. Which begs the question - who's pulling Dubya's strings?

Dick Cheney and Karl Rove? Obvious choices, both; close enough to keep tabs on him and prevent him from straying too far from the message du jour.

It may be that neither are pulling Dubya's strings. It may be that he's an incredibly smart person who is acting stupid just to distract us.

Now, before you get on my ass about being paranoid, let me say this: "You only have to be right once to make paranoia completely worthwhile."