DUNDERHEAD
The issue of young Junior going AWOL from his inconvenient National Guard commitment in the ‘70s has re-surfaced as a campaign issue this year, after being given short shrift by the media – along with all his other faults, embarrassments and human weaknesses – in the 2000 campaign. Now the media, facing the comparison of Bush with a real war hero in John Kerry, can’t ignore the options both men pursued as the Vietnam fiasco threatened to envelope them.
Kerry – no less a child of privilege than Junior – dove in with both feet into the war he hated and provided real leadership in whatever dangerous field he was thrown into. Bush turned tail and ran to Daddy, who provided safe haven by carrying his spoiled brat in his arms past all those other poor schmucks standing in line for a shot at the state-side Guard. Not only did he get him in – he got him out with an honorable discharge despite shenanigans that would not be tolerated by anyone else. Watching Bush and his minions squirm and wax indignant over the issue is an entertaining sideshow.
Bush could resolve it all by just signing up now. Hell, he’s close to the same age and probably in better health than some of those Guardsman stuck over there in his own Stupid War. He fought to stay out before – let him fight to get in now. Except Daddy’s not going to be much help. Maybe Dick Chaney can pull some strings. But we all know that, if he had to, Bush would dodge and cheat just like he did before – he’s just not that strong.
But, of all the personal issues that should have been taken more seriously in 2000, I’d like to see another one re-visited. Because, if Bush has proved anything in the last three years, it’s not just that he’s not just the most radical, extremist, dangerous, right-wing, divisive, ruthless, incompetent president in the nation’s history. More than all that, the editorial cartoonists need to get together and agree to fit GW for a new Dunce Cap. The fact that Bush is the dumbest president in the electronic era has not been fully discussed or even adequately noticed by those whose job it is to tell us that they have noticed things.
As proof, I offer you Junior’s pathetic performance on Meet the Press this morning. Even in the face of soft-ball questioning by Tim "If You’re a Dem, I’m a Tough Guy" Russert, Bush displayed the same vacant stare and remote-control line recitations that characterize his too-infrequent press conferences. The only thing missing from those dog-and-pony shows are Bush’s snooty "how dare you ask me a question" attitude. After all, his handlers asked for this time to try to save his evaporating poll numbers.
He had to be nice, and he was in a very smarmy, patronizing way. Asked a simple question by Russert, Bush would lean in with a furrowed brow – all serious ‘n stuff – then he’d lean back with a smile that invited only agreement. Because he doesn’t have a clue himself, Bush simply mirrors the idiot, child-like way it was explained to him. You can just see Chaney or Rummy or Karen Hughes leaning in the same way to get his attention; saying something no longer than a bumper sticker or a short sentence; then leaning back with a smile and a nodding head. Works every time for him. Bush is still wondering why you don’t get it, too.
Nothing is funnier than watching Bush when the light goes off in his head and he thinks he knows the answer he is supposed to give to a question. His distant eyes suddenly light up in relief that he doesn’t have to make something up. With Russert, Bush repeatedly interrupted his questions with a "yes" or "yeah", not because the answer to the question was affirmative but because, at that moment, he found the filecard in his head that applied to the question.
The last dim-bulb puppet president was Ronald Reagan, but even he had it all over Bush in the intelligence department. I discussed this back in October, after comparing a then-recent Bush press conference with one by Reagan that I had taped many years ago. Bush is so obviously a creature of his handlers, it’s scary. It is amazing that, when the Republican wingnuts got together to prep an empty suit to serve as a candidate before Bush was even Governor, that they couldn’t come up with anyone more articulate and brighter than this guy. He’s a national embarrassment. No wonder we are now the laughing stock of the international community.
On substance, Bush was typically shifty, spinny and disingenuous.
He insisted that our soldiers were greeted a liberators in Iraq. This would be a surprise to the soldiers fearing for their lives every day on the streets of Baghdad.
He agreed that he had to explain the invasion to the families of the Unnecessary Dead, and then pitifully failed to do so. "Every life is precious," he proclaimed, although his record in Texas and elsewhere shows that he could care less.
He denied that we were nation-building there, then said, well, the war is still going on (what happened to Mission Accomplished?), so we get to nation-build.
Asked if the war was one of choice or necessity, Bush looked stunned. Grasping for words and gasping for breath (or was that his handlers watching in horror?), Bush muttered something he probably says a lot in his meetings when things are going over his head: "Please elaborate on that a little bit." Before Russert could bail him out, it suddenly struck him that he should say it was a necessity. Yes! Necessity!!
And so on. More lies about his National Guard (non)duty, the horrible economy (tax cuts fix everything – job growth has not happened, but it is happening), the deficit (doesn’t know what assumptions were used; wasn’t asked about including the cost of the Iraq occupation in the budget), etc.
Most disingenuously, he wondered out loud why things were so partisan in national politics. He actually said "Gosh, I don’t know....I don’t speak ill of anyone in the process here." Well, he doesn’t have to – he’s got Karl Rove blast-e-mailing "message-of-the-days" to hundreds of surrogates to do it for him.
Bush certainly won’t stop his free-fall in the polls with this performance. It may be time for the Bushies to move up the timing of their October surprise, which my brother wisely predicts will be the staged capture of Osama bin Ladin. By October, the general public may be wise to their cynical manipulation of the 9/11 tragedy. It may be too late for the Bushies by then.
11:54:51 PM 
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