When President Bush declared this week that he's the "decider" and that means he gets to "decide what's best," it reminded me of the thing we used to say when we were kids: "You're not the boss of me." The new version might be: "You're not the decider of me."
There's no doubt that the president is the decider when it comes to the tenure of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Rummy stays because Bush said so -- very decidedly, or is that decideredly.
Decider seems to be the new hip word. People are calling the president the decider-in-chief, while others suggest that he's a "decider not a divider." I'm not sure why all this strikes me as funny, but it surely does.
Jim,
"The decider" also strikes many as funny. Jon Stewart on The Daley Show did a sendup depicting "The Decider" as a caped comic strip character who makes one bonehead decision after another. Every decision of "The Decider" was obviously wrong, making the parody right on target. As an editorial cartoonist put it, "Bush and Rummy. Bush and Rummy. Go together like a tomb and mummy. Go and tell your mother. You can't have one without the other!"
The country yearns, however, for the day when "the decider" will finally choose to start leveling with the people, and decide to do his constitutional duty to "take care that the laws shall be faithfully executed."
I think we expected the same from Bill Clinton.
If he said he wasn't the decider there would be an even louder uproar. Of course he's the decider, he's the President. In November 2008, you get to decide.