The Big Chilada

Like so much else in W's America, there's no such thing as a Big Chilada: but to W it will always be the evil pretzel that almost killed him! "This is Bush's legacy -- a stunning series of alibis," writes Nora Ephron.

"It's true what he said: we misunderestimated him.

George Bush came into his presidency with a huge wave of goodwill. Not from me, but from many others. An amazing number of people who should have known better thought of him as a charming guy whose intellectual limitations would somehow be as benign as Ronald Reagan's, whose promise of a fairly passive presidency would be as survivable as Dwight Eisenhower's..."

"He was misunderestimated in every way. It was hard to imagine that this feckless leader could do so much damage.

"...after all these years in the dark, we're ready for a little overestimation. Which is, unlike misunderestimation, an actual word. But come to think of it, misunderestimation ought to be a word. I certainly know what it means."