My point was that a President has the power to wipe most of us out. That's what those "command codes" they carry around for him in a liuttle box are all about. He's got at his fingeretips weapons of mass destruction that would make the kind of stuff that Saddam was claimed to have (even if he didn't actually have them) look like pea-shooters.

I'm not sure what the checks and balances are that exist to deal with a President of the United States who becomes seriously deranged, more especially in a non-dramatic fashion. I hope they are there in place.

And short of deranged there is deluded, and irrational. Or plain stupid. And short of nuclear armageddon there are plenty of other disasters that can be unleashed on us, including ecological ones.

This isn't particularly aimed at Bush. I was just explaining what I mean by saying that the President of the USA, any President of the USA is these days the most dangerous person on the planet.

..............

"...a way about him that makes him seem like a cowboy who thinks he is a badass or something"

But that "seem like" is surely the key word. Bush is not a horny handed rugged cowboy who came up the hard way, he's a privileged and cossetted East Coast aristo, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and putting on an act. A politician all the way, but with a different mask from some of the others.