THE TOUGHER HAND
"Has any president been dealt a tougher hand?"
Has any president been responsible for a more pathetic commercial?
For all their squealing about the anti-Bush 527s, the Bush-surrogate Progress For America campaign is much better funded and has broached issues for which Bush needs plausible deniability. Early this year, the Bushies ran an "official" ad, featuring a flag-draped casket being carried from Ground Zero and produced justifiable outrage from 9/11 families for dancing on the dust of their dead relatives. But the PFA ads run with impunity, always featuring Bush the Brave Warrior against the Dark Hoards.
But the latest PFA running every 15 minutes in this hot battleground of Wisconsin is beyond the pale, even for this increasingly desperate campaign. Starting with the whining exhortation about "the tougher hand", the ad relates various familiar lies about coming into office with a recession already underway, etc. Then, of course, the Ground Zero footage, complete with Junior standing on the rubble of 3,000 lives with his arm around a firefighter (who, since he hasn’t been seen with Bush on the campaign trail, is no doubt a Kerry supporter). If this pathetic, unearned emotional appeal was run by the official campaign, there would be howls of outrage. But, because it is run by one of Karl Rove’s subsidiaries (Swifties, Sinclair Broadcasting, et al.), the message is sent with none of the baggage but the same impact.
Imagine, if you would, an incumbent Democrat blaming his disastrous record in office on "the tougher hand" he was dealt coming in. They would never be able to get away with it, even if true and even through a transparent surrogate. Clinton didn’t need any excuses, since his first term was wildly successful. Carter walked into an ethical and economic mess left to him by Ford and Nixon, but never blamed any of his problems in office on anyone but himself. Johnson escalated the last major Stupid War and took himself out rather than continue to live with the legacy of our over-reaching in Southeast Asia.
But just because no incumbent in history has taken such a whiny, pathetic tone doesn’t mean that W the Trailblazer shouldn’t get in his SUV and have someone drive him in that direction. I mean, the truth is a defense, isn’t it, even though it’s an argument he should be embarrassed to make? Looking at how he came into office, you sure have to feel for Junior’s bad luck:
- Didn’t get enough votes to win, electoral or otherwise. Well, that got "fixed".
- Left with a budget in surplus as far as the eye can see;
- An economic engine that was still chugging along, people lifted out of poverty, incomes rising;
- A looming terrorist threat that was being seriously addressed by Clinton and his national security apparatus;
- Otherwise, peace in the world and the U.S. more respected and powerful as at any time in our history;
- A Republican congress, by which I could get through whatever agenda he chose.
Yeah, other than that, this was one tough hand he was dealt. Enough to make a grown man cry, or at least whine.
Then came 9/11, which "changed everything", as we know. Poor George – now all those dead victims get dumped into lap. No wonder he sat there in the classroom with that stupid look on his face for seven minutes – he was too busy feeling sorry for himself and his "tough hand". In fact, the events of 9/11 were the best thing that ever happened to him, as Rove immediately recognized. "Call it a War’" said Rove, and the rest is invented history.
If you want to talk about tough hands, let’s talk about what will land in John Kerry’s lap on January 20th. Picking up the pieces from the most radical, inept, dangerous presidency in our history won’t be easy. There are fences to mend all over the place, regulations to reinstitute, bills to be paid, damage to be repaired. Four years from now, no matter what happens, John Kerry would be able to legitimately claim that the "tough hand" Bush dealt him mean he needs more time to repair the damage to the country and the world.
But he couldn’t get away with a claim like that and he wouldn’t anyway. That would just be too pathetic. Bush, on the other hand, has no shame -- and he'll be proving it like crazy in the next two weeks.
10:16:29 AM 
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