One must wonder why, on the face of it, there was all this hoopla, all this fervor without substance, this tempest in a broken teapot? Was it because Bush needed to empress his emotions at failure after he thought he had been chosen by God Almighty to bring about an apocalypse?

Why all the intense personality display, the pleading, the staged sincerity, the pre-arranged clapping of assembled troops? Was it a prelude to the Ides of March of a Julius Caesar? Or was it a mental disorder?

A blogger from Bellacio suggested that Bush suffers from bipolar disorder, manic-depressive behavior. A glance at medical information reveals the Positive Aspect of manic-depression. Examining a list of possible symptoms the reader might ask if it is possible that George Bush is indeed expressing manic behavior. Here is a culled list of symptoms:

From high to low. From euphoria to depression. From recklessness to listlessness. These are extremes associated with bipolar disorder, which can be a serious and disabling mental illness. Causes are elusive, with no cure. Flare-ups of bipolar disorder may last for weeks or months.

Bipolar disorder is characterized by an alternating pattern of emotional highs (mania) and lows (depression). Intensity of signs and symptoms varies. For many people, manic signs and symptoms may include:

- The "highs" of bipolar disorder

• Increased physical and mental activity and energy

• In the most severe cases, delusions and hallucinations.

Symptoms

During the manic phase, symptoms can include:

• High level of energy and activity

• Irritable mood

• Decreased need for sleep

• Exaggerated, puffed-up self-esteem

• Rapid or "pressured" speech

• Rapid thoughts

• Tendency to be easily distracted

• Increased recklessness

• Quick to anger

• Impatience with other people

Persecutory delusions.

Delusions of jealousy

• False beliefs (delusions) or false perceptions (hallucinations)

During elated moods, a person may have delusions of grandeur, while irritable moods are often accompanied by paranoid or suspicious feelings.

Manic symptoms may also include:

• overly inflated self-esteem

• decreased need for rest and sleep

• increased distractibility and irritability

• increased physical agitation

• excessive involvement in pleasurable activities that may result in painful consequence; this may include provocative, aggressive, or destructive behavior

• increased talkativeness

• excessive "high" or euphoric feelings

• increased sex drive

• increased energy level

• uncharacteristically poor judgment

• increased denial

Many projects may be started but few are finished

Obsession to finish a single project while other work is neglected

Grandiose ideas with delusions of grandeur

Tendency when speaking for sentences trail off without finishing them

Forget words but may invent new ones

Speech may speed up and become unintelligible

Intense urge to do things, even knowing that they are stupid

Get irritated about the smallest things

Ignoring people and criticism

Denial of any responsibility for acts committed

Talking to oneself

Getting verbally twitchy

Illusions of hearing voices of unseen persons

Irritability, anger, worry, agitation, anxiety

• Excessive irritability, aggressive behavior

• Grandiose delusions, inflated sense of self-importance

• Racing speech, racing thoughts, flight of ideas

• Impulsiveness, poor judgment, distractibility

• Reckless behavior

• In severe cases, delusions and hallucinations

-distractibility (i.e., attention too easily drawn to unimportant or irrelevant external stimuli);

-increase in goal-directed activity (either socially, at work or school, or sexually) or psychomotor agitation;

-more talkative than usual or pressure to keep talking;

-flight of ideas or subjective experience that thoughts are racing;

-affective instability

-"rejection hypersensitivity"

-dysphoria

-irritability, intense anger

-anxiety

-Poor concentration is an early symptom of this disorder. A depressed person quickly becomes mentally fatigued when asked to read, study, or solve complicated problems.

Marked forgetfulness often accompanies this disorder. As it worsens, this memory loss can be easily mistaken for early senility (dementia).

Psychomotor retardation manifests as a slowing of coordination, speech, and impaired articulation. A person appears sluggish and seems hesitant or confused in speech and intention.

Mood incongruent themes include delusions of control, persecution, thought broadcasting and thought insertion.

Psychomotor agitation can also lead to generalized restlessness.

Psychomotor activities are the physical gestures that result from mental processes and are a product of the psyche. Many psychomotor behaviors associated with mental disorder affect impulses, cravings, instincts, and wishes. The spectrum of agitated behavior includes: Incoherent conversation, Expansive gesturing, Pacing and hair twirling

Feelings of euphoria, extreme optimism and inflated self-esteem

Rapid speech, racing thoughts, agitation and increased physical activity

Poor judgment

Recklessness or taking chances not normally taken

Extreme irritability Bipolar disorder may be confused with Psychosis, a major mental disorder in which the personality is disorganized and contact with reality is impaired, often including auditory hallucinations and delusions - firmly held erroneous beliefs.

Of course it may all be coincidence, imagination, or wishful thinking, but our petulant and arrogant leader, who talks to God and has grandiose illusions, who often makes unintelligible remarks, is extremely impatient, and denies all responsibility for his acts, seems to match many of the symptoms listed.

The alternate choice, Dick Cheney, is even worse. May God, Allah, Buddha, Krishna, or Quetzalcoatl help us all!