HAS THE TIDE TURNED? President Missing

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Registered: 08-21-2004
HAS THE TIDE TURNED? President Missing
19
Fri, 10-15-2004 - 7:29am

The President Vanishes<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />


By Richard Cohen


Friday, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />October 15, 2004; Page A23


For months now I've dropped bets on the presidential election like Hansel (of "Hansel and Gretel") dropped pebbles. For honor and money, I've wagered on George Bush, not because I wanted him to win but rather because I thought he would. Now I'm changing my mind. It's not the tightening polls that have done it -- I knew that would happen -- but rather something I could not have predicted. The president is missing.


The president I have in mind is the funny, good-natured regular guy I once saw on the campaign trail -- a man of surprisingly quick wit and just plain likeability. I contrasted this man to John Kerry, who is as light and as funny as a mud wall, and I thought, "There goes the election."


Where it has mattered most -- the three debates -- Bush has been wooden, ill at ease and downright spooky. He makes bad jokes, cackles at them in the manner of a cinematic serial killer and has lacked the warmth that he not only once had but that I thought would compensate for a disastrous presidency and give him a second -- God help us -- term. In short, he could take over the Bates Motel in an instant.


Just what has happened to Bush I shall get to in an instant. Right now I want to quote that newest font of all political wisdom, Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show," who said at a New Yorker-sponsored breakfast yesterday morning that he had seen at least two Bushes in recent days: the "angry Bush from the second debate" and a thickly muddled one.


Stewart was kidding, but all jokes must be based on truth or else they are not funny. The truth in this case was that Bush has been inconsistent -- definitely not the reliably unswerving man we prefer as our country's steward.


A bit later, Stewart made a serious remark that goes to the heart of what has been Bush's problem. He referred to the president's nonexistent "learning curve," which is indeed troubling. This is a man who is a latter-day Bourbon. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand said of them that "they have learned nothing and forgotten nothing." I'm not too sure of the forgetting, but when it comes to learning, Bush has shown little growth. In fact, he has ridiculously maintained otherwise.


Historians may someday say that the beginning of the end for Bush came last April when Time magazine's John Dickerson asked the president at a televised news conference, "What would your biggest mistake be . . . and what lessons have you learned from it?" Bush, who said the question took him by surprise, said he could not come up with one.


Essentially the same question was asked by Linda Grabel, an ordinary voter, at the St. Louis debate. This time, it could not have been a surprise. But this time, too, Bush could offer not a single substantive example. Aside from making "some mistakes in appointing people," everything had gone swimmingly.


This was a preposterous, dishonest answer. It was either the response of someone who is vastly deluded or sticking to a political strategy conceived by people who do not value truth. Either way, it harkens back to that "learning curve" Stewart mentioned and it demolishes Bush's pose as a regular guy, someone approachable -- someone you could like. It is not possible to like someone who cannot admit a mistake. Iraq is the crazy aunt in the attic that Bush will not acknowledge. When she throws the furniture, Bush says you're just hearing things. Yeah, sure.


Had Bush admitted that things went wrong with Iraq, he could have been himself. But he was out there three times telling us what we know is not true. This was Kerry's problem when he was defending his vote in favor of a war that he never, in his gut, thought was a good idea. When he finally was able to say how he really felt, his campaign took off. The man settled into his own skin. He had the better argument. The camera picked it up.


Bush, though, has been hobbled by artifice. The natural has been turned into just another synthetic pol. His only good moments came when he talked about his faith and his family, tapping into a wellspring of emotional truth. Other than that, he was only rarely the politician he used to be -- crushed, not empowered by incumbency. If I could, I'd wager differently. The man I bet on no longer exists.


 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34164-2004Oct14.html?nav=hcmodule

Donna

"Patriotism means to stand by the Country. It does not mean to stand by the President." -- Theodore Roosevelt.

Donna

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iVillage Member
Registered: 08-05-2004
Fri, 10-15-2004 - 1:57pm
I watched the PBS thing and they had older footage of Bush doing campaigning and he has gone down. Just compare that to the last three debates.
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-21-2004
Fri, 10-15-2004 - 6:09pm
Let's hope the tide has turned and we are in the winning home stretch. All I hear is positive. And of course that is what I want to hear.
Donna

"Patriotism means to stand by the Country. It does not mean to stand by the President." -- Theodore Roosevelt.

Donna
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-06-2004
Fri, 10-15-2004 - 7:12pm
The tide has not turned, it's risen. All I hear is positive about Bush, except of course from the hate-filled Kerry supporters. Oct. 13 was the final straw for Kerry. He's down for the count and the horizontally challenged liberal diva is belting out the tunes.
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-21-2004
Fri, 10-15-2004 - 8:00pm
You and I obviously have different friends. I have spoken to no one who is voting for Kerry, even strangers I talk to while waiting for my prescriptions of whatever. But I know you guys have to keep your chins up cause
Donna
Avatar for claddagh49
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-20-2004
Fri, 10-15-2004 - 8:17pm
Donna, don't you mean you have spoken to no one who is voting for BUSH? The people I know are pretty evenly divided. Some were for Bush, but are now undecided. Some will vote for Bush if he grows horns on the top of his head. they just like his "morals" Give me a break! It was morally wrong to jump into a war with Iraq as far as I'm concerned and a lot others feel the same way. These same people wouldn't have liked his "morals" in college, the drunken party animal. He was a "C" student, more concerned in partying then learning something. To each his own. I just get very annoyed when people talk about Kerry's younger days when Bush was just as questionable in his own right.
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-06-2004
Fri, 10-15-2004 - 8:37pm
"You and I obviously have different friends."

I'm quite sure we do.

"I have spoken to no one who is voting for Kerry, even strangers I talk to while waiting for my prescriptions of whatever. But I know you guys have to keep your chins up cause it is getting pretty weak out there for your guy."

I have no doubt there are pockets of strong Kerry support where you won't talk to a Bush supporter, e.g. Gore had the biggest cities in his pocket but failed to win the Electoral College.

18 days left and I've got confidence in my guy. Let's talk about how weak our cause has been on Nov. 3.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-11-2004
Fri, 10-15-2004 - 8:45pm
You guys are hilarious, trying to bolster each other's spirits. Donna you just got thru talking about how bad Bush acts and how he might be having drinking problems again and he is not as sharp and then you go and say I know of no one voting for Kerry. Not even the people where I get my "drugs". You probably had a bad day like we all do and just typed in the wrong name. But can't you see, the president not only has to fulfill his duties at the white house but he is on the campaign trail every day in the middle of a war. As for you claddagh I would much rather have a "party animal" who has changed than a man like Kerry who committed treason in his younger days and still cannot muster up the courage to say what he wants to say, "I am against any conflict that might mess up my manicure". That probably sounds awful to you but that is the way you come across when you badger Bush. Now just sit back and relax and chill. Have a drink and watch a movie.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
Fri, 10-15-2004 - 9:02pm
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There are alot of perks to being the incumbent - built in presteige, Air Force One, and everybody already knows who you are (of course) - and this is the one downside.

I've been meaning to ask you this for awhile...are you from Mahopac NY? That's my hometown. Just thought I'd ask. : )

Avatar for claddagh49
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-20-2004
Fri, 10-15-2004 - 9:33pm
Oh, Geezzz, I ain't worried about my manicure!You badger Kerry, so I can Badger Bush. You probably haven't been affected by him in the last 4 years. You know he is toying with the idea of a National Sales tax? Why do you think Kerry commited treason? Because he threw away his ribbons? So it's ok, to claim you fullfilled your duties when you have a so called "lost year" 1972 was Bush's lost year. Why don't you settle down with a cup of cappaccino and watch Frontline choice 2004, maybe you can get a better picture of both Kerry and Bush.
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-23-2004
Fri, 10-15-2004 - 10:23pm


Yes, in place of Federal Income Tax. Liberals ought to like that, it will reduce middle class taxes and increase taxes on the rich, since it is a solely consumption based tax. No loopholes either. It's an interesting idea.

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