God help us

Two small items in the news today have succeeded in scaring the crap out of me. The first is from the daily press briefing with Tony Snow. He was asked about Senator Smith's (R-OR) assessment of the war in Iraq, here is his response:

QUESTION: You’re just going to blow it off. A Republican senator is saying that president’s policy may be criminal and it’s immoral and you’re just saying…

SNOW: What would you like me to say? Should I…

QUESTION: Don’t you think you should answer for that? You’re saying — you said from this podium over and over that the strategy is victory, right?

SNOW: And it continues to be.

QUESTION: And you have a Republican senator saying there is no clear strategy, that you don’t have a strategy.

SNOW: Well, let’s let Senator Smith hear what the president has to say. We understand that this is a time where politics are emotional in the wake of an election. And you know what? Senator Smith is entitled to his opinion.

Then there was this in the NY Daily News, which sought to find out how the President is coping with the recent criticisms of his Iraq strategy (via Atrios):

Yet Bush is described by another recent visitor as still resolutely defiant, convinced history will ultimately vindicate him.

"I'll be dead when they get it right," he said during an Oval Office meeting last week.

While I would certainly agree that there are times to shun conventional wisdom, however, the President has crossed the line. He is absolutely delusional and a megalomaniac.