Leafing through Mencius today, I came across a passage that captured the media strategy of the Bush administration.  Remember, for Mencius, the ancient past was a golden age; his present was riddled with war and corruption and dissembling leaders, kind of like our present:

But in ancient times, when the noble-minded made mistakes, they knew how to change.  These days, when the noble-minded make mistakes, they persevere to the bitter end.  In ancient times, mistakes of the noble-minded were like eclipses of sun and moon: there for all the people to see.  And when a mistake was made right, the people all looked up in awe.  But these days, the noble-minded just persevere to the bitter end, and then they invent all kinds of explanations(73)

     Remember the good old days: when political leaders admitted to their mistakes and didn’t "invent all kinds of explanations?"  Were there ever such good old days?