The Incompetence Defense

There is so much to mentally unpack in the Libby testimony that the President himself authorized the leaking of the very leaking he sternly denounced, vowing to prosecute and fire the leaker not if but when caught, that I can't get my head around the entirety of it yet. The best grasp I have right now is this: George Bush authorized the leaking of national security information in order to support a lie; or rather, true information was selectively used to discredit true information which contradicted a carefully crafted false narrative meant to justify a war of choice. The President claims the legal (and I would assume they'd argue) moral right to declassify and use state secrets at his discretion in order to discredit information that proves his dishonesty.

Soon to come: his supporters are no doubt scouring documents and history books (and making up bullshit) in order to say that what this President has done and is doing is no different than what previous Presidents have done, and that it is only the viciously partisan hatred of this particular President that has made this non-issue an issue. All the more shameful, of course, in a time of war and yadda. Presidents have always lied to the public, don't you know, and stop pretending to a virginal naivete you partisan bastard.

So, in anticipation, let me just say, supposing there's truth to the argument that previous Presidents have done similar, and it's a dirty but crucial aspect of the office of the President: This fucktard, this megalomaniacal coward, this thumbless doofus with his crotch-sock-stuffed flight suit, he can't govern competently, he can't strategize or set tactics or delegate or prioritize competently; this dumb lying sack of cement can't even LIE competently. What has this fucktard done at any point of his presidency which makes a sane person confident that he has the intelligence and moral core to navigate the matrix of complexities such decisions require?