In "Without a Doubt", New York Times, Oct. 16, 2004, Ron Suskind quoted a “senior advisor to Bush” who said people like Suskind were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' He continued:

BUSH: You see, I would define the reality-based community as those who rely on observation -- academics, journalists, researchers… people who put their faith in the faulty creations of man like science. But the new way of thinking puts faith in a higher source.

WHOSLYING: God?

BUSH: No. My instincts, which happen to be in tune with God’s will quite a lot.

WHOSLYING: But what do your instincts tell you about whether you volunteered or not?

BUSH: My instincts don’t tell me what reality is but what reality should be. As Mr. Suskind quoted one of my advisors as saying, we’re an empire now and capable of creating a new reality.

WHOSLYING: How does one create a “new reality”?

BUSH: By believing in it. See, when I was building a case for war, there was Weapons of Mass Destruction. Hussein had to be stopped because he was an imminent threat.

WHOSLYING: But, there are no Weapons of Mass Destruction.

BUSH: That’s why we didn’t go to war for that. We went to free the Iraqi people from a nasty dictator. That’s what this was about. I've been very clear about this.

WHOSLYING: You just said it was about Weapons of Mass Destruction.

BUSH: It was about Weapons of Mass Destruction. Saddam refused to disarm so we disarmed him. Now he doesn’t have any WMD, so we’re there to liberate the Iraqi people from a terrible dictator…

WHOSLYING: But you didn’t disarm him… he never had any weapons to disarm.

BUSH: Just because he never had any weapons doesn’t mean we didn’t disarm him, Dylan. You’re not listening to what I’m saying. Let me finish. Let me finish. Now these reports, the Kay report, the Deufler report, they confirm what I’m saying to you…

WHOSLYING: Actually, the Deufler report and Kay report says Saddam didn’t pose an imminent threat…

BUSH: See, there you go again. The only reason you're saying those reports contradict me is because that's what the report says. The world doesn’t work that way any more. I’m telling you those reports vindicated me.

WHOSLYING: It seems to me what you’re saying is that truth is whatever you say it is.

BUSH: I wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true.

WHOSLYING: But it's true if you say it?

BUSH: I’m a man of my word.