Bush Becoming More Paranoid

Is George W. Bush becoming paranoid in his old age? It certainly looks like it. Recently he refused to appear at an event where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was also invited (even though it was extremely unlikely that Assange would enter the U.S. to attend the event due to the government wishing to charge him with a crime -- any crime). I guess Bush figured that any organization that would invite Assange might ask some difficult questions -- embarrassing questions about the leaked government e-mails.

A couple of days ago, Bush did appear to make a speech at the Desert Town Hall speaker series in Southern California. But his paranoia again evidenced itself. Bush refused to go to the event unless he was promised that no members of the media would be allowed to attend the event. This was a strange request since two of the event's sponsors were media outlets -- the Desert Sun newspaper and a local CBS affiliate.

The event organizers said they had never had such a request before from any of their many speakers (evidently they haven't yet invited Sarah Palin). After considering Bush's demand, the event's board of directors agreed to ban the media. They even had to find a new moderator since the regular moderator was a member of the local media.

Bush did answer questions at the event, but only softball questions that had been submitted in advance and cleared. This is some sad and pitiful behavior from an ex-president -- behavior not exhibited by any other ex-president (even his own father). Is it paranoia, or just a guilty conscience? Is he afraid that the crimes he committed as president are finally going to catch up with him? Or has he just finally realized that he's not the brightest bulb on the tree and is tired of making a fool out of himself.

Whatever the reason, this is inexcusable behavior for an ex-president.