"Look, David, the president sets the tone."

And that talk of Watergate reminds me about something Richard Main emailed me - Richard, hope you don't mind me posting it:

I'll never forget this as long as I live:
I remember watching David Frost interview Richard Nixon in the late 70s. Frost was trying to get Nixon to accept responsibility for the abuses of power during his administration. Nixon dodged at first and finally said "Look, David, the president sets the tone." Nixon said he did not know about the Watergate break-in before it happened BUT the results and responsibilities were the same. He accepted that he had set a tone, a climate where these abuses were inevitable.

This President set the tone with his ruling re: the Geneva Conventions. Then he hides behind the principal of "plausible deniability" - ["I didn't know because Rumsfeld didn't tell me"]. But it's his job to know. Further, this president doesn't want to hear bad news or disagreement. He set the tone that kept Rumsfeld from telling him about this.

The American mind is too saturated with fantasy (movies, TV) to connect the dots.