Wednesday, June 29, 2005
W’s LAST THROES?
What was I thinking?? Of course the President wasn’t going to admit to a mistake or offer a mea culpa during last night’s speech. I must’ve stepped out of the reality-based community for a moment, my apologies. But I was correct in predicting he would offer nothing new. No strategy. No plan. No explanations. But he did a fine job of catapulting the propaganda, no?
The President with his 'props' last night.
Seriously, this speech was like a sad, desperate ‘greatest hits’ recording of All the President’s Bullshit from the past 3 years, including such nuggets as “strong coalition”, “fight them there so we don’t have to fight them here”, and “stay the course.” One question: Did Bush actually quote bin Laden in a bid for support of his own assertion that Iraq is the central front in the War on Terror? You know, Osama also says shit like “Bush is the Great Satan”, should we believe him on that front too? Probably.
But Bush’s biggest offense, by far, was the pure Luntzian way he invoked 9/11. Frank Luntz is the GOP political operative who penned the “GOP Playbook” which essentially advises, “When in doubt, roll out 9/11.” We saw this strategy begin to take shape last week when Karl Rove rolled the 9/11 bone out there. When White House PR man Dan Bartlett mentioned it on the Today Show. And when Don Rumsfeld trotted it out during his round-robin of the Sunday morning talk shows. But last night was the big one. The president mentioned 9/11 and Iraq in the same sentence so many times that by the end of the speech I think he was actually saying “Iraq/11” as though they were the same thing. These guys are desperate. And shameless. And probably hoping for more shark attacks.
Distractions, ya know?
A few quick reminders for you Mr. Bush, in case you've forgotten:
1. Iraq and 9/11? Not the same thing.
2. The Iraq war has distracted us from the War on Terror.
3. This war never needed to happen. It was a war of choice. Your choice.
4. This war has not made us safer. In fact, your ill-conceived Iraqi adventure has created more terrorists and America-haters than existed before the war. It has also left us more vunerable at home. Thanks for that.
5. We're still looking for some answers on this.
6. Why did we go to war?
7. Oh, and by the way, where the fuck is Osama?
MORE
NYT: Full Text
Wonkette: LiveBlogging Ft. Bragg
Corn: Wow, What a Speech! (fantasy)
Corn: Nothing to See Here, Move Along (reality)
Kos: Harry Reid’s Response
AFP: Bush Hammered as Dishonest by Brit Critics
Reuters: Iraqis Give Mixed Response
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