Dead Certain

From the New York Times’ review of Robert Draper’s Dead Certain and Jack Goldsmith’s The Terror Presidency this weekend:

In an interesting comparison with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s sweeping power in World War II, Goldsmith says Roosevelt relied on persuasion, bargaining, compromise. “The Bush administration has operated on an entirely different concept of power that relies on minimal deliberation, unilateral action and legalistic defense. This approach largely eschews politics: the need to explain, to justify, to convince, to get people on board, to compromise.”

This arrogance is the defining characteristic of the Bush administration.