The One Minute Presidency
Fri Dec 30, 2005 at 09:16:15 PM PDT
The myth of George W. Bush was created atop the mound at Ground Zero where he vowed to avenge the US on the men who brought the Twin Towers down.
I have always believed that the man shouting at Bush from the crowd was a Rove creation who helped the President enact a pre-scripted drama. The result saved Bush II's first term and gave him a second -- but that is a story for another diary. Right now I want to focus on the myth of George W. Bush, the protector.
There was a book published in the 1980's called the "One Minute Manager" that said a person could get the skills to manage people in no time at all. That book comes to mind when I try to understand how the Myth of George II came about.
No one talks about it any more, but when George II made his first statement to the US about the "folks" who destroyed the towers, my only thought was: Oh my God, he looks scared out of his mind. Needless to say, that is not what you want your first thought to be when your country is under attack. Then he disappeared for most of the day and we had Rudy Giuliani reassuring us and holding us together. I recall reading a pundit writing about how the nation held its collective breath, hoping this legacy-admission president would make it all the way from the beginning to the end of each sentence. That pundit articulated my anxiety completely. When he did complete a few sentences we were relieved and applauded. What a good boy.
Then, of course, came the moment that cable news cannot seem to get enough of. Now known as "The Bullhorn Moment." George II stood on the grave of the almost 3000 people who perished on that Tuesday morning and answered someone from the crowd. The words, themselves, are not important. It was the fact that we could finally exhale. Erase the doubt. This man will protect us. We can "trust" him to protect us. We needed reassurances because our country was under attack by people and for reasons that none of us knew on September 10. Finally, we heard words that resonated with our fury and our determination to strike back at those who had worked so hard and so long to hurt us.
He will take care of us. The Myth of the Bush II was born. That one minute - the Bullhorn Moment -- gave us the current Bush White House with all of it hubris and law breaking. They say Rome was not built in a day, but this White House and its second term election were built in that one minute. At the same time, a lot of people in this country abdicated their responsibility to defend our freedom not just against our foes, but also against our president. The imperial presidency was reborn.
George W. Bush -- the one minute presidency.
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