Steal this meme: The fair-weather President

(Cross-posted to Needlenose.)

You can bet that as the rebuilding of New Orleans progresses, the city will have to get a restraining order to keep Dubya away -- that's how desperate he is to put his face all over the "good news" of recovery after being AWOL when Hurricane Katrina struck.

There's not much hope of preventing the Orwell Bush administration from generating its own counter-flood of stage-managed positive images. But we can try to short-circuit their attempt to overwrite people's memories by connecting the current PR-driven courtship to the abdication of responsibility that preceded it.

I think one phrase captures it well: The fair-weather President. Stick that in the public consciousnessness, so that whenever people see sunny images of Dubya with his sleeves rolled up, they remember that when the storm came rumbling through, he was nowhere to be found.  For example:

It's great that the president is showing his commitment to the reconstruction effort. But New Orleans deserved more than a fair-weather President. And America deserves more than a fair-weather President.

•  a sunshine president!

  who couldn't step foot in NO until the "ugly" could be swept up enough to produce a spot for photo op-ping.

  by Cathy on Mon Sep 12, 2005 at 08:11:14 AM PDT

  •  Even then the photo-ops were on a ship..

    by Alan Arizona on Mon Sep 12, 2005 at 08:28:11 AM PDT

    •  yes, but he's supposed to tour the streets n/t

      by Cathy on Mon Sep 12, 2005 at 08:32:26 AM PDT

•  I like it, could have legs. It's certainly true,

  no one can deny that.  That could make it stick.

  by Alan Arizona on Mon Sep 12, 2005 at 08:30:43 AM PDT

•  Thomas Paine 1778

  "These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."

  Change 2 words and it is up to date

  "These are the times that try men's souls. The summer politican  and the sunshine President will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."

  by BOHICA on Mon Sep 12, 2005 at 08:32:27 AM PDT

•  I'll toss another meme into the mix...

  "Bushie, you're doin' a heck of a job!"

  by Needa Bigger Pretzel on Mon Sep 12, 2005 at 09:20:18 AM PDT