When Your President is Truly an Embarrassment
I'd put the odds high that most of you understand that I'd happily walk a mile barefoot over coarse gravel before I would choose to watch goo-woo bush play to the media. I cut chimpanzees a certain amount of slack based on innate capabilities and all and enjoy watching their antics, but this sub-buffoon is supposedly capable of procreating with my species. Astonishingly, scientists report that is the case for J. McSame also.
So I was of course not in attendance at the porno blessing at our White House on Wednesday. But for those with a sturdier resistance to gag-reflex than I have, it sounds like it was quite a show. Our frat-boy hick, tap-dancing? And with his totally anal schedule-mania (at least there is something he can actually pay attention to), it is a hoot to learn he was publicly stood up at the altar and had no coping skills.
Back in the day when we actually had mainstream media who did journalism rather than constant fawning blowjobs (Chris? Tim? have you been checked for mouth-cancer lately?), we would have had the benefit of some actual reporting on this almost-comical "alliance" between the bush-asshole and the mccain-swine.
This event apparently had very high entertainment values and comic quality. The media-fawns, were they not so wholly beholden to republican corporate interests and no longer actually capable of doing any actual journalism, would have made serious hay of this. They didn't, just confirming for the umpteenth time that they no longer do the job of journalism. Of course there are clowns at the circus more deserving of awe than the current white house occupant-schmucks, but between the tap-dance, mike monopolization, and obvious mutual antipathy, this should have made for prime-time mockery.
And of course, were it Democrats making such total fools of themselves, that's just how tv-viewers would have seen it. But I'll bet the words "tap-dancing," which in the real world should be the classic mockery of this prissy little prima donna of a spoiled brat, will not appear in big type on front page anywhere here. Of course we have given up on those paper/tv establishment swine, no? I have hopes for Europe. We are savvy enough to look to folks who don't parse every word with the thought "would my loser/president's feelings be hurt?" We'll kick it off with Dan Froomkin:
There's something about passing the torch to John McCain that appears to make President Bush very uncomfortable.
At yesterday's pomp-filled endorsement of his would-be successor, Bush came off like a man overcompensating for anxiety with manic bonhomie. Even before McCain's arrival -- when Bush literally began tap-dancing for the press corps as he waited for the Republican nominee's car to pull up to the North Portico -- the president seemed unusually self-conscious and ill at ease.
Which was kind of ironic, given that yesterday's event was far more fraught with peril for McCain than it was for Bush.
When the two men finally emerged for their joint Rose Garden appearance, Bush was rambunctious and domineering. McCain, by contrast, responded to Bush's giddiness with a rigor-mortis smile and some clear indications that he would be keeping Bush at arm's length from this point forward.
McCain stiffly stated that he expected Bush's "heavy schedule" would make the president a rarity on the campaign trail. And while he generically paid his respects, McCain said nothing to indicate that he sought to emulate his host.
It fell to Bush to make the point that a McCain presidency would be four more years of the same -- at least when it comes to the defining theme of the Bush presidency. "There will be a new President, a man of character and courage," Bush said, "but he's not going to change when it comes to taking on the enemy."
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Matt Stearns writes for McClatchy Newspapers that "the event highlighted the difficulty that McCain may have in emerging from the shadow of a president who is no wallflower. Bush was aggressive, verging on bombastic, in the press conference, and he jumped in to answer questions that seemed aimed at McCain.
"'I'm not through, and I'm going to do a lot,' Bush said of his remaining time in office, as McCain smiled by his side. At another point, Bush gave a lengthy answer on the importance of steadfastness in war efforts. McCain then said: 'I don't have anything to add.'"
Steve Holland writes for Reuters: "McCain sometimes had trouble getting a word in edgewise."
Massimo Calabresi writes for Time: "The meeting was supposed to project a unified Republican front, a burying of past hatchets with smiles all around. But from the moment a fashionably late John McCain made President Bush awkwardly wait for him (and tap dance for the assembled media) at the North Portico of the White House, it was clear that this public endorsement of the freshly-crowned Republican presidential nominee was largely a marriage of convenience. . . .
"Bush put on his best strutting, cocky performance. He praised McCain's strength and his 'big heart' and his ability to 'handle tough decisions.' But there were already hints McCain saw the relationship in different terms. In his opening statement, he said he'd welcome the President on the campaign trail as his schedule allows, and he repeated that theme five times in ten minutes. He'd hold joint campaign events 'in keeping with the President's schedule,' he said. He hopes the President will 'find time from his busy schedule' to campaign with him, he said. McCain apparently hasn't seen the 'Week Ahead' memos the White House has been sending out that shows Bush's lame duck agenda sparsely dotted with feel-good meet-and-greets.
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It's enough to lead a statue to sign up for hurling lessons.
And, speaking of how horrendously it must suck if you are actually possessed of any actual self-esteem or character (obviously disqualifying character traits in present admin) to have anything to do with the waddling (tap dancing???) lame ducks, what meds would it require for you to attempt to fit into this job (Digby has it):
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has called CENTCOM commander Adm. William Fallon “one of the best strategic thinkers in uniform today.” Fallon opposed the “surge” in Iraq and has consistently battled the Bush administration to avoid a confrontation with Iran, calling officials’ war-mongering “not helpful.” Privately, he has vowed that an attack on Iran “will not happen on my watch.”
Unfortunately, this level-headed thinking and willingness to stand up to President Bush may cost him his job. According to a new article by Thomas P.M. Barnett in the April issue of Esquire magazine (on newsstands March 12), Fallon may be prematurely “relieved of his command” as soon as this summer.
If the Republicans want to shoot the moon to win in November, this is the likliest course. Start a new war and rely on the "rally round the flag" effect. It's hard to imagine they could go to that well again, but never underestimate paranoia and the lure of patriotic grandeur and big ratings to push the country into temporary insanity.
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If our media were doing their job at even the 25% level (how could they, Murdock the fascist owns and/or rules all - any true journalist no longer does mainstream journalism), Admiral Fallon would be a household name (we know that sad story, right? my current book-reading on that score is entitled "Lapdogs"). This dude seems to have some serious military credentials and is not a patsy of the Colin Powell stripe. Froomkin also picked up on this:
Thomas P.M. Barnett writes in Esquire: "If, in the dying light of the Bush administration, we go to war with Iran, it'll all come down to one man. If we do not go to war with Iran, it'll come down to the same man. He is that rarest of creatures in the Bush universe: the good cop on Iran, and a man of strategic brilliance. His name is William Fallon, although all of his friends call him 'Fox,' which was his fighter-pilot call sign decades ago. Forty years into a military career that has seen this admiral rule over America's two most important combatant commands, Pacific Command and now United States Central Command, it's impossible to make this guy--as he likes to say--'nervous in the service.' . . .
"[W]hile Admiral Fallon's boss, President George W. Bush, regularly trash-talks his way to World War III and his administration casually casts Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as this century's Hitler (a crown it has awarded once before, to deadly effect), it's left to Fallon--and apparently Fallon alone--to argue that, as he told Al Jazeera last fall: 'This constant drumbeat of conflict . . . is not helpful and not useful. I expect that there will be no war, and that is what we ought to be working for. We ought to try to do our utmost to create different conditions.'
"What America needs, Fallon says, is a 'combination of strength and willingness to engage.'
"Those are fighting words to your average neocon--not to mention your average supporter of Israel, a good many of whom in Washington seem never to have served a minute in uniform. But utter those words for print and you can easily find yourself defending your indifference to 'nuclear holocaust.' .
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So I was of course not in attendance at the porno blessing at our White House on Wednesday. But for those with a sturdier resistance to gag-reflex than I have, it sounds like it was quite a show. Our frat-boy hick, tap-dancing? And with his totally anal schedule-mania (at least there is something he can actually pay attention to), it is a hoot to learn he was publicly stood up at the altar and had no coping skills.
Back in the day when we actually had mainstream media who did journalism rather than constant fawning blowjobs (Chris? Tim? have you been checked for mouth-cancer lately?), we would have had the benefit of some actual reporting on this almost-comical "alliance" between the bush-asshole and the mccain-swine.
This event apparently had very high entertainment values and comic quality. The media-fawns, were they not so wholly beholden to republican corporate interests and no longer actually capable of doing any actual journalism, would have made serious hay of this. They didn't, just confirming for the umpteenth time that they no longer do the job of journalism. Of course there are clowns at the circus more deserving of awe than the current white house occupant-schmucks, but between the tap-dance, mike monopolization, and obvious mutual antipathy, this should have made for prime-time mockery.
And of course, were it Democrats making such total fools of themselves, that's just how tv-viewers would have seen it. But I'll bet the words "tap-dancing," which in the real world should be the classic mockery of this prissy little prima donna of a spoiled brat, will not appear in big type on front page anywhere here. Of course we have given up on those paper/tv establishment swine, no? I have hopes for Europe. We are savvy enough to look to folks who don't parse every word with the thought "would my loser/president's feelings be hurt?" We'll kick it off with Dan Froomkin:
There's something about passing the torch to John McCain that appears to make President Bush very uncomfortable.
At yesterday's pomp-filled endorsement of his would-be successor, Bush came off like a man overcompensating for anxiety with manic bonhomie. Even before McCain's arrival -- when Bush literally began tap-dancing for the press corps as he waited for the Republican nominee's car to pull up to the North Portico -- the president seemed unusually self-conscious and ill at ease.
Which was kind of ironic, given that yesterday's event was far more fraught with peril for McCain than it was for Bush.
When the two men finally emerged for their joint Rose Garden appearance, Bush was rambunctious and domineering. McCain, by contrast, responded to Bush's giddiness with a rigor-mortis smile and some clear indications that he would be keeping Bush at arm's length from this point forward.
McCain stiffly stated that he expected Bush's "heavy schedule" would make the president a rarity on the campaign trail. And while he generically paid his respects, McCain said nothing to indicate that he sought to emulate his host.
It fell to Bush to make the point that a McCain presidency would be four more years of the same -- at least when it comes to the defining theme of the Bush presidency. "There will be a new President, a man of character and courage," Bush said, "but he's not going to change when it comes to taking on the enemy."
-clip-
Matt Stearns writes for McClatchy Newspapers that "the event highlighted the difficulty that McCain may have in emerging from the shadow of a president who is no wallflower. Bush was aggressive, verging on bombastic, in the press conference, and he jumped in to answer questions that seemed aimed at McCain.
"'I'm not through, and I'm going to do a lot,' Bush said of his remaining time in office, as McCain smiled by his side. At another point, Bush gave a lengthy answer on the importance of steadfastness in war efforts. McCain then said: 'I don't have anything to add.'"
Steve Holland writes for Reuters: "McCain sometimes had trouble getting a word in edgewise."
Massimo Calabresi writes for Time: "The meeting was supposed to project a unified Republican front, a burying of past hatchets with smiles all around. But from the moment a fashionably late John McCain made President Bush awkwardly wait for him (and tap dance for the assembled media) at the North Portico of the White House, it was clear that this public endorsement of the freshly-crowned Republican presidential nominee was largely a marriage of convenience. . . .
"Bush put on his best strutting, cocky performance. He praised McCain's strength and his 'big heart' and his ability to 'handle tough decisions.' But there were already hints McCain saw the relationship in different terms. In his opening statement, he said he'd welcome the President on the campaign trail as his schedule allows, and he repeated that theme five times in ten minutes. He'd hold joint campaign events 'in keeping with the President's schedule,' he said. He hopes the President will 'find time from his busy schedule' to campaign with him, he said. McCain apparently hasn't seen the 'Week Ahead' memos the White House has been sending out that shows Bush's lame duck agenda sparsely dotted with feel-good meet-and-greets.
-clip-
It's enough to lead a statue to sign up for hurling lessons.
And, speaking of how horrendously it must suck if you are actually possessed of any actual self-esteem or character (obviously disqualifying character traits in present admin) to have anything to do with the waddling (tap dancing???) lame ducks, what meds would it require for you to attempt to fit into this job (Digby has it):
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has called CENTCOM commander Adm. William Fallon “one of the best strategic thinkers in uniform today.” Fallon opposed the “surge” in Iraq and has consistently battled the Bush administration to avoid a confrontation with Iran, calling officials’ war-mongering “not helpful.” Privately, he has vowed that an attack on Iran “will not happen on my watch.”
Unfortunately, this level-headed thinking and willingness to stand up to President Bush may cost him his job. According to a new article by Thomas P.M. Barnett in the April issue of Esquire magazine (on newsstands March 12), Fallon may be prematurely “relieved of his command” as soon as this summer.
If the Republicans want to shoot the moon to win in November, this is the likliest course. Start a new war and rely on the "rally round the flag" effect. It's hard to imagine they could go to that well again, but never underestimate paranoia and the lure of patriotic grandeur and big ratings to push the country into temporary insanity.
-clip-
If our media were doing their job at even the 25% level (how could they, Murdock the fascist owns and/or rules all - any true journalist no longer does mainstream journalism), Admiral Fallon would be a household name (we know that sad story, right? my current book-reading on that score is entitled "Lapdogs"). This dude seems to have some serious military credentials and is not a patsy of the Colin Powell stripe. Froomkin also picked up on this:
Thomas P.M. Barnett writes in Esquire: "If, in the dying light of the Bush administration, we go to war with Iran, it'll all come down to one man. If we do not go to war with Iran, it'll come down to the same man. He is that rarest of creatures in the Bush universe: the good cop on Iran, and a man of strategic brilliance. His name is William Fallon, although all of his friends call him 'Fox,' which was his fighter-pilot call sign decades ago. Forty years into a military career that has seen this admiral rule over America's two most important combatant commands, Pacific Command and now United States Central Command, it's impossible to make this guy--as he likes to say--'nervous in the service.' . . .
"[W]hile Admiral Fallon's boss, President George W. Bush, regularly trash-talks his way to World War III and his administration casually casts Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as this century's Hitler (a crown it has awarded once before, to deadly effect), it's left to Fallon--and apparently Fallon alone--to argue that, as he told Al Jazeera last fall: 'This constant drumbeat of conflict . . . is not helpful and not useful. I expect that there will be no war, and that is what we ought to be working for. We ought to try to do our utmost to create different conditions.'
"What America needs, Fallon says, is a 'combination of strength and willingness to engage.'
"Those are fighting words to your average neocon--not to mention your average supporter of Israel, a good many of whom in Washington seem never to have served a minute in uniform. But utter those words for print and you can easily find yourself defending your indifference to 'nuclear holocaust.' .
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posted by Sir Gumbo at 8:49 PM
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