In a surprising (yet very likely vetted and scripted) exchange, Dick Cheney distances himself from Dubya’s hard line against gay marriage. What a compassionately conservative way to make news the week before the convention, no? Sure, Cheney probably does harbor some reservations about the religious right’s goofy stance on gay marriage, given his family relationship to the issue, and I suppose I should give him credit for mentioning them aloud. But, it’s hard to buy his second-thoughts now, when he’s been so silent on the topic these past few months…it’s too convenient by half.
Tag: George W. Bush
Busted.
“[O]n close examination, the accounts of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth prove to be riddled with inconsistencies. In many cases, material offered as proof by these veterans is undercut by official Navy records and the men’s own statements. Several of those now declaring Mr. Kerry ‘unfit’ had lavished praise on him, some as recently as last year.” The Times ably dissects the Swift Veterans smear-job, complete with a spiffy graphic linking its moneymen to Dubya. “Records show that the group received the bulk of its initial financing from two men with ties to the president and his family – one a longtime political associate of Mr. Rove’s, the other a trustee of the foundation for Mr. Bush’s father’s presidential library.“
Landslide?
“The president — highly intelligent, personally flawed, detested by many, a man who was first elected in a narrow three-way race and then reelected easily — had faced impeachment. In the following election, his vice president, a decent man with decades on Capitol Hill, was beaten by an inexperienced governor from the South. Four years passed. The economy weakened and oil prices soared. Crises in the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan eroded our national confidence. Clearly the president was in trouble. Yet many were not comfortable with his opponent. Yes, he was effective on television. But was he a steady hand? Was he trustworthy? Would the country be safe in his hands? The year was, of course, 1980.” James K. Galbraith makes the case for a decisive Kerry-Edwards victory in November.
Offsides.
Iraq’s Olympic soccer team ask to be removed from Bush re-election ads. “‘My problems are not with the American people,’ says Iraqi soccer coach Adnan Hamad. ‘They are with what America has done in Iraq: destroy everything.'” Sorry, y’all…it’s just that Dubya has very little to fall back on these days. It’s not like he can campaign on his domestic record.
The Stepford Voters.
“Each session is like a 90-minute support group dedicated to him…For most of the question-and-answer sessions, the president is endlessly being thanked, for ‘serving our country,’ for ‘everything you did after September 11th.’” Hannah Rosin of the Post attends an “Ask President Bush” pep rally, in which Everyday Americans Just Like You are carefully weeded out in favor of pliant conservatives and Dubya-friendly evangelicals. In Salon, Sidney Blumenthal contextualizes this strategy: “‘Ask President Bush’ has crystallized the essential underlying question, framed succinctly by the greatest American poet of democracy, Walt Whitman, who wrote, ‘The President is there in the White House for you, it is not you who are here for him.’“
Follow the Puppet Strings.
“[H]ere’s what you really need to know about them. They’re funded by hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Republican contributor out of Texas. They’re a front for the Bush campaign. And the fact that the President won’t denounce what they’re up to tells you everything you need to know. He wants them to do his dirty work.” After remaining relatively quiet about the Swift Veteran Liars (whose falsifications are now contradicted by military records as well) in the early going, John Kerry finally returns fire at the man behind the curtain, George W. Bush. (Or would that be Karl Rove? Well, you get the picture.)
What would Jesus do?
Apparently, evangelicals are still waiting by the phone for their GOP convention invites. “‘People who are not part of the religious right might be alienated if they put too many conservatives as the public face of the party,’ said Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta.” You think?
Cornered.
Alas, the Bush campaign drops ‘turning a corner’. That’s too bad. It was so tone-deaf and Hoover-esque that I’d hoped Dubya would keep saying it right through to November.
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.
With visions of the 2000 primary perhaps dancing in his head, John McCain asks the White House to repudiate the recent Swift Boat Veterans garbage. (Naturally, they didn’t.) The real ugliness begins.
Born in the USA.
A few days out of date now, but still worth reading: Bruce Springsteen on the need for regime change. “It is through the truthful exercising of the best of human qualities – respect for others, honesty about ourselves, faith in our ideals – that we come to life in God’s eyes. It is how our soul, as a nation and as individuals, is revealed. Our American government has strayed too far from American values. It is time to move forward.”