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Friday, September 12. 2008
NO BUSH!
Just read an interesting blog by Eric Boehlert from Media Matters. It’s over there on the left. It’s about how the mainstream media helped the Republicans “whitewash” President Bush from the Republicans’ agenda for their convention as well as the campaign.It’s interesting because on Wednesday Richard Wolfe of Newsweek was on Countdown with Keith Olbermann (MSNBC) talking about how the press has been manipulated by the Republicans and how the press allowed itself to be manipulated.
The press manipulation isn’t what strikes me most about the column. It’s the opening premise: the president and vice president were absent from their own party’s convention. When has that ever happened? Certainly not in my lifetime.
With the convenient interruption of Hurricane Gustav, the Republicans and the McCain-Palin campaign in particular were able to jettison both President Bush and Vice President Cheney from the Republican National Convention. Bush and Cheney are, without question, the most unpopular administration in the past 80 years and an appearance by either, let alone both, would tie the Republicans to their extremely unpopular president. Not good if you want your candidates to win the election November 4.
So, the word of the week during the Republican National Convention: “NO MENTION OF PRESIDENT BUSH!”
After creating the title I had the insane idea to post pics of my favorite Playboy models who conform to that NO BUSH policy ... but thought better of it. I’m such a prude.
The actor, Fred Thompson, never mentioned the president, not did Rudy Giuliani. None of the speakers at the convention mentioned the president and the press barely mentioned the absence of the party’s current standard-bearer and his VEEP. Instead, the Republicans would be the party of “change,” in effect campaigning against themselves as well as Obama and Biden. Think about it: the Republicans have totally controlled the federal government since September 11, 2001. Everyone wanted to rally around the commander-in-chief and that man, the president the Republicans want America to forget, not only abused that trust, he put America in the worst economic recession since the Great Depression. And the Republican Party helped.
In fact, one can argue the Republicans in Congress set the agenda and made sure Bush rubber-stamped their game plan. As long as they, the Congressional Republicans, not only went along with his war in Iraq, but vociferously promoted it as well.True, several Democrats promoted it, Joe Lieberman and Hillary Clinton being the two most notable, but it was the president’s war and the Congressional Republicans had to not only stand by him, they had to plow the field when those who opposed the war spoke.
Who can forget the rhetoric; those who opposed the war were “un-American” and “unpatriotic” and people who would appease the terrorists. “Do you know what happened on nine-eleven,” some fuckwads would ask? Or, “have you forgotten nine-eleven!”
Made one want to punch someone in the face when asked those questions, or even kick’em in the gonads.
The biggest issue the Republicans are campaigning on: earmarks! The irony — dare we call it hypocrisy — is that earmarks ballooned under Republican Control of Congress! Now McCain and Palin are campaigning against their own party’s record. Against Palin who, until she was picked to be the running mate, was all for whatever earmarks she could get for her Anchorage suburb (as mayor) and state.
And of course Palin and McCain are campaigning against the Republican incumbent in the White House. The best way to do that, in their view, is to not mention the president — ever. Mentioning President Bush invites questions about McCain’s (and Palin’s) similarities to Bush, especially McCain’s record of voting over 90% of the time with Bush’s policies. Let’s see what happens when the Democrats get the message through about McCain’s links to Bush.
The funniest irony of course is the large and festering hatred between Bush and McCain. Ever since the Bush campaign of 2000 slimed McCain with attack ads that claimed McCain fathered a child with a woman not his wife — a black woman no less! — the hatred has been festering in both camps.Maybe even funnier still, McCain hired some of the very same campaign people who orchestrated the smearing of 2000 to run his campaign against Obama in the very same way: with smear tactics. Like an attack ad that smirks at Obama’s legislation to teach sex education to young children that would help protect them from pedophiles. According to the McCain ad, Obama’s legislation was designed to get kids started having sex at an early age. Or at least that’s McCain’s implication.
Former Bush political operatives have been assigned to Palin to coach her on how to deal with Charlie Gibson and the rest of the media.
Ironic, or hypocritical, you be the judge.
And yesterday, on the day we remember “nine-eleven” and honor those killed in that terrorist attack, ABC aired the first of three segments of the interview Charlie Gibson did of Sarah Palin. The nominee tried to explain away her videotaped remarks that the war in Iraq was part of God’s plan; that our service personnel were on a “task from God.”
Palin told Gibson she would never presume to know “God’s will” — refuting everything she told those high school students earlier this year. Wonder what the graduates think of her now? In June she was telling them the war was God’s plan, our service personnel were on a task from God and the oil pipeline was God’s will. Now, in order to win an election, she’s saying she doesn’t know if it’s God’s plan?
If I’m one of the kool-aid drinkers, I’m rationalizing that Palin is telling that to Gibson because the non-believers will belittle what Palin says, belittle God’s plan so her little fib is justified so she can gain office and help bring about God’s righteous glory to mankind.
One of the funniest assertions by the McCain-Palin ticket is that Palin has more foreign policy experience than Senator Obama because Alaska is so close to Russia.When asked by Gibson what foreign policy experience might be gleamed from being a mayor in and governor of Alaska, Palin replied, “They're our next-door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.”
Did Gibson actually wince when she said that? Looks like it. But it’s absolutely funny … until you remember she’s vying for the second highest office in the land.
Palin admits that even as governor, she hasn’t met any foreign leaders, not even a Canadian Prime Minister. Really? The Right Honourable Stephen Harper? Canada’s first conservative Prime Minister in decades? One would think that with Harper’s ties to Canada’s oil industry Palin would have met him straight away. Apparently not. Unlike her running mate, Palin supports drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. You’d think Palin and Harper would have a lot to talk about.
When pressed on President Bush’s foreign policy doctrine, Palin was not sure what the Bush doctrine is, so Gibson explained it to her. More than her words, the blank look in her eyes gave away her ignorance on the issue. But she answered anyway, pretty much off the cuff. “I believe that what President Bush has attempted to do is rid this world of Islamic extremism, terrorists who are hell bent on destroying our nation.”Hell bent on destroying our nation! Not to mention, she even called Gibson a cynic. She’s got moxie! That will fire up the Republican base, which has been bashing the media even before the Republican National convention. And Charlie Gibson is such a nice man!
This is pretty long already and I haven’t even mentioned her efforts to ban books from the Wasilla library when she was mayor! Palin even fired the head librarian Mary Ellen Emmons, but backed off the next day after public outcry over the decision.
The McCain-Palin campaign claims the issue is overblown, that it happened a long time ago (1996-97) and that Palin’s questions about banning books was only “hypothetical.” The termination of Emmons wasn’t hypothetical, so it stretches credulity to suggest Palin’s inquiries were only “hypothetical.”
We don’t know for sure which books Palin wanted to ban, but we can have fun creating our own lists!
And this last note: my love and concern for my sister Mary Lou and her family. They sit directly in the path of Hurricane Ike. Today they are having a “Hurricane-a-que.” Be safe.
One last item: Mary Lou, don’t drink more than two glasses of wine. Remember what happened last time!
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