Well more conservatives are beginning to suspect that
the president has no clothes.
the president will agree to give what is advertised in advance as a major speech. An important venue will be chosen. A crowd of thousands will be gathered. The networks will all be invited. And after these elaborate preparations, the president says ... nothing that he has not said a hundred times before.
Yeah, yeah I'm sure that any conservative will look at my diary and yell "Look, they want us to lose" But at this point I'm beyond caring about that crapola. Humor is my defense mechanism, and somedays it's the only thing stopping me from just yelling incoherently at these idiots.
Let's begin shall we:
The initial quote is somewhat misleading. Frum isn't quite ready to join us anti-American extremists just yet. You see he's just upset that BushCo isn't talking about all the good stuff in Iraq
Supporters of the war can argue that the public is mistaken, overly influenced by biased news reporting. Yes, yes. But mistaken public opinion is just as powerful as sound public opinion.
Damn those facts with their stubborn anti-Bush bias! I'm going to jump up and down and yell "liberal media" over and over again. Why aren't they talking about all the good news. There is so much to talk about like,
the reliably dour Robin Wright of the Washington Post casually mentioned in the course of her latest down-beater that Iraq has gone on a car-buying boom that has put a million new cars on the road since liberation.
Yeah, Dave. That's because they keep blowing up the ones they have (oh, I'm going to burn in Hell for that one). But that's not all the good news not by any means.
Kaus: "A 'car-buying boom'--another shocking failure! Don't they know about global warming?"
OK, um Dave? Kaus is an idiot, I'm surprised you haven't gotten the memo yet. Hitchens is a drunk, too. Not that you mentioned him, just that I always feel the need to point that out. Also how is it you repubs got all the ex-Trotskites (Hitchens, Horowitz) and yet somehow we're the fascist Commies?
A reader from Ohio finds more good news:
[O]ne of my pet peeves is no zero, zip nada news regarding the vast wetlands in southern Iraq. 90 % destroyed in 90's, but it is being rebuilt, those people haven't had fresh water in years, they do now because of Pres. Bush. Just seems like a great news story
Seriously . . . wetlands. You know we don't have daily bombings in the US and still most people really don't care about wetlands in the US, let alone in Iraq. And furthermore, do you really think that the people in Iraq care about restored wetlands right now? Ohio. It's the new Florida.
By now it should be clear that President Bush's words on the subject of Iraq have ceased connecting with the American public.
Fortunately, Frum's here and he's here to help. Like:
1) Presidential speeches cannot seem disconnected from reality as it is perceived by a majority of the American public.
It's OK if the speeches are disconnected from reality. They just can seem that way. Who is the public going to believe, Bush or their lying eyes?
3) If a president has nothing new to say, he can add freshness and interest to his previously stated views by presenting them in a new way. He can give an interview or a press conference
Oh, c'mon now Dave. Lets stop kidding ourselves, we both know why he isn't giving interviews. Oh, wait you meant having Hannity perform rhetorical fellatio on the president. I suppose even Bush can't fuck that up.
4) Failing all that, he can say familiar things in an exciting and unfamiliar setting.
I think the dock at Den Haag would make for a nice setting.
On to the Kool Aid reader convention, the most amazing thing is how they all studiously avoid blaming the president for, well, just about everything
the president's stale speeches are being drowned out by the media's constant drumbeat of failure in Iraq, in addition to noisy Democrats and now demonstrators on his own doorstep . . . I have felt for a long time that the communication team in the WH is woefully inadequate these days. . . . I often get the feeling that the Bush team is more worried about what their critics might say than they are in advancing the boss's point of view/policy
And of course they all support the troops, unless, you know the troops are dying and stuff:
Americans support troops that are doing something, not just driving around on roads and getting blown up.
On the other hand, this guy needs to be cut off from the Kool-Aid bar
The war will not be won until the governments of Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia have ceased their support for terrorism and joined the community of civilized nations.
Yeah, remaking the middle east on a US friendly basis is something that the government is perfectly equipped to handle, but government run health care? God forbid!
This support the war in all cases, no matter the outcome attitude is really amazing. We are now looking at an Iran-friendly Shia theocracy just itching to wage civil war against the Sunnis as soon as we leave. And the Sunnis probably reciprocate the favor. Islamofacisism in on the march, indeed. As Justin Logan said:
It'd be as if massive stockpiles of WMD were found being loaded onto bombers the day we invaded, and then Iraq spontaneously erupted into a libertarian utopia and I were standing here waving my finger in the air, shouting, "It still wasn't worth it!"