One week later: I'm tan. He's still stupid.

Well, after one Outer Banks family vacation interrupted by a Hurricane, it's nice to be back and alive. It''s also comforting to know that even without an internet connection, the world keeps on turning and our Commander in Chief keeps on treading water, poorly....

Via Brad DeLong

Q Good morning. My name is Mark Trahant. I'm the editorial page editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and a member of the Native American Journalist Association. (Applause.) Most school kids learn about the government in the context of city, county, state and federal. And, of course, tribal governments are not part of that at all. Mr. President, you've been a governor and a President, so you have a unique experience, looking at it from two directions. What do you think tribal sovereignty means in the 21st century, and how do we resolve conflicts between tribes and the federal and the state governments?
THE PRESIDENT: Tribal sovereignty means that, it's sovereign. You're a -- you've been given sovereignty, and you're viewed as a sovereign entity. And, therefore, the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities.

Now, it's easy to suggest that Tribal Sovereignty would fall under the "obscure policy details of governance" category, that is, if you didn't know that 1) Indian gaming and the related tax, business and legal frameworks were a major issue of Dubya's Texas Governorship or 2), that "Sovereignty" as a concept is part and parcel of every speech he gives on the meaning and definition of success for our little Iraqi/Middle East foreign policy experiment.

Funny thing that Sovereignty. Even funnier--or is it just sadder?--when you hear it from the holder of the most important job in America and the World. Here's the man himself. Go ahead, it's only 470kb. The mp3 via the Majority Report.