Here's a meme to get started - what is the common thread that defines the Bush presidency? We've got so many failures - the war, the economy, NCLB, etc. etc. - but what is the evil ring that binds them all?
Advertizing. This presidency is best at, and spends most of its time, marketing and fearmongering and campaigning.
We saw it with the WMD canard. We saw it with the Mars distraction. We have Payolagate - now a trilogy - that marketed NCLB and anti-gay marriage. Of course, there was the long re-election campaign. And now, we have the Great Social Security Distortion Mission.
(more after the jump)
Here's the latest from
CAP on the administration's marketing plans for Social Security:
THE ADVERTISING GAME: With the facts working against it, the White House is set to do what it always does: launch an ad campaign. The Wall Street Journal reports the White House is quietly assembling a coalition of deep-pocketed allies "that will privately raise $35 million for an advertising and lobbying effort to push the politically risky measure through Congress." One of the groups was founded by The Business Roundtable, a coalition of chief executives that "never has trouble raising money for something important to it." It's no wonder the nation's chief executives have taken such an interest in the success of the president's proposal: an independent analysis for the Journal found that "[e]ven if only two percentage points of payroll tax were diverted into privatized accounts, this would mean $60 billion a year could flow into mutual funds and other securities" on Wall Street.
In fact, executive PR spending has DOUBLED under Bush ... in a time where our surpluses are gone, we're fighting two wars (three if you count the one on gays), revenue was slashed by a tax cut for the wealthy, and there's talk of gutting Social Security, the Bush administration has
... spent at least $88 million in fiscal 2004 on contracts with major public relations firms, the analysis found, compared with $37 million in 2001, Bush's first year in office. In all, the administration spent $250 million on public relations contracts during its first term, compared with $128 million spent for President Clinton between 1997 and 2000.
In fact, is there anything that the Bush administration is good at except for bamboozling the public into supporting its wars, policies and re-election?
So let's call Bush what he is: The Great Advertiser!