The Creative Memory of the White House
The usual White House gimmicks don't seem to be working anymore when the blunders pile up and the effort begins for the umpteenth time to save Bush's image. As we've seen lately, blaming Bill Clinton is back in vogue at the White House despite the fact that Bush is just weeks from starting his seventh year in office. George Washington created a new nation in less time. Abraham Lincoln saved the union in less time. Woodrow Wilson saved the world for democracy in less time. Franklin D. Roosevelt won World War Two in less time.
In the time it took Bush to notice that Hurricane Katrina was a national disaster, John Kennedy had the Cuban Missile Crisis licked. Bush has spent more time on vacation that the time it took to win some of our wars. But blaming Clinton still goes on because right wing pundits have convinced right wing Republicans that Clinton is always to blame. Most Americans, though, Democrats, independents and even quite a few sensible Republicans, are catching on.
Dan Froomkin of White House Briefing notes an interesting fact in his column today about the blame Clinton game:
Bush and his advisers have been bragging for a long time that they 'create' reality. These days, Bush's accomplishments look more like snazzy-looking TV graphics wrapped around failure after failure. Unfortunately, Karl Rove has turned Bush into the first photo-shopped presidency.
In the time it took Bush to notice that Hurricane Katrina was a national disaster, John Kennedy had the Cuban Missile Crisis licked. Bush has spent more time on vacation that the time it took to win some of our wars. But blaming Clinton still goes on because right wing pundits have convinced right wing Republicans that Clinton is always to blame. Most Americans, though, Democrats, independents and even quite a few sensible Republicans, are catching on.
Dan Froomkin of White House Briefing notes an interesting fact in his column today about the blame Clinton game:
The White House issued a solemn statement Thursday commemorating the sixth anniversary of the al Qaeda attack on the USS Cole.
The White House has been citing the Cole a lot lately, as part of its narrative that President Clinton, who was in charge back then, was asleep at the switch when it came to terrorism.
I went back to see what the White House statement was like on the fifth anniversary of the attack on the Cole. But there wasn't one!
And there wasn't one on the fourth, the third, the second or the first, either.
Bush and his advisers have been bragging for a long time that they 'create' reality. These days, Bush's accomplishments look more like snazzy-looking TV graphics wrapped around failure after failure. Unfortunately, Karl Rove has turned Bush into the first photo-shopped presidency.
posted by Craig at 6:59 PM
3 Comments:
Now, Rove is photoshopping the upcoming election:
"Some Republicans on Capitol Hill are bracing for losses of 25 House seats or more. But party operatives say Rove is predicting that, at worst, Republicans will lose only 8 to 10 seats -- shy of the 15-seat threshold that would cede control to Democrats for the first time since the 1994 elections and probably hobble the balance of Bush's second term.
In the Senate, Rove and associates believe, a Democratic victory would require the opposition to 'run the table,' as one official put it, to pick up the necessary six seats -- a prospect the White House seems to regard as nearly inconceivable.
An attempt to create reality via self-fulfilling prophecy? Or is this seemingly unjustifiable confidence based on knowing something the rest of us only suspect in our darker moments?
Well, as one commenter responded to the above-cited news item over at Blogs for Bush, "DIEBOLD baby!!!!"
He added LOL.
S.W., if there are Democrats leading by 7 or 8 points the Sunday or Monday before the election, and those Democrats lose by a point or two, there's going to be a stink this time. I think Americans really have had enough.
As for Rove, he hasn't had much success since his social security campaign flopped. And his ridiculous attempts to burnish Bush's image in New Orleans didn't fool anybody. Other than trying to bolster Republicans and bluff Democrats into not showing up, I suspect Rove is breathing his own fumes at this point.
Can Rove still play games? Yeah, but nobody's buying it anymore. The Bush Administration at this point is exactly like the boy who cried wolf too many times. Even the American public can only tolerate so many lies from the Oval Office.
You mentioned the excellent cookie metaphor the other day. The adults are noticing that the cookies keep disappearing and George and Karl are the only ones in the room everytime. They've run out of excuses.
Lord, do I hope you're right.
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