A Big Serving of W: Good With Turkey, Great for Morale (good review of W's Iraq Trip)

Wall St. Journal ^ | Monday, December 1, 2003 | MAX BOOT

[pittsburgh gop guy]

The most compelling evidence of the success of President Bush's trip to Iraq was the reaction of the opposition. No, not the Iraqi opposition -- or "resistance," as the French have taken to calling it. I mean the American opposition: the Democrats and the news media.

[pittsburgh gop guy]

Good article, the reason I subscribe to the WSJ.

[CyberAnt]

I only take exception to one part of the article .. "Mission Accomplished" was not an embarassment. That ship is a San Diego ship .. it had been gone for 10 mos. These young people were 2 weeks from home after a 6 mos deployment .. their President called .. they turned around and were the first naval vessel to officially enter the war.

I saw the Commander of the ship in an interview after the ship returned to port in San Diego. According to the Commander, it was the "crew" who wanted the banner. If the WH complied with the request .. what does that have to do with it and why is that an embarassment ..?? The mission of the ship was accomplished .. they had been at sea for 10 mos, and they had successfully participated in the bomb attacks on Baghdad. I am sick and tired of these people getting this wrong.

[MEG33]

I agree,the ship's crew had accomplished their mission, but the naysayers say if Bush's team saw to it that the sign was made,it's his statement. It plays well with the pundits and the DEMs.

I was glued to my TV and the live thread all day that day.I had a great time and loved every minute.I watched the ship dock the next day and the homecoming.I think the fact supporters of the war and Bush loved it is the reason others hate it.

God bless our armed forces and all who wait at home

[Quicksilver]

You have eloquently addressed one of my media peeves. Once they get a notion in their pointy, elitist heads, no matter how wrong it may be, they're mulish about letting it go.

I would love to see the Bush campaign use that footage in his reelect Bush commercials.

[nutmeg]

ping!

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.

[hobson]

read later

[Choose Ye This Day]

Great post. Boot focuses more on the symbolism behind what was said and done. Has Peggy Noonan written about the secret Baghdad trip yet? She always has interesting insights into shrewd political words and gestures.

The 9 Dwarves, Terry McAuliffe and all the lurkers from DU can kvetch and moan all they want...in their hearts, they know this was pure brilliance by W.

[CyberAnt]

I agree .. I hope he uses it too!

And .. you're right about the liberals getting stuck with a notion and running it into the ground. They used to be able to get a free pass on that stuff .. but now that FR is here, they can't do it anymore.

[McGavin999]

The visuals of the president serving turkey to the troops was nice, but nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, can compare to the sound the troops made when President Bush entered the room. I get chills just thinking about it.

[McGavin999]

Let me add on to that. It was a howl of joy so intense it was almost painful. I have heard the troops scream their love of Bush before, but I have never heard anything like what we all heard Thursday.

[hotpotato]

MSNBC was complaining about the administration "handpicking FOX news" and not inviting MSNBC since it was their pool day. I heard FOX News explain that Thursdays are FOX News' pool day and why they received the invite. So what's the deal with the sour grapes from MSNBC (besides the obvious)? What is their pool day? Wednesday?

[hotpotato]

The visuals of the president serving turkey to the troops was nice, but nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, can compare to the sound the troops made when President Bush entered the room. I get chills just thinking about it.

The DU had a thread going on this topic with the original poster stating "This is the WORST day of my entire life."

Says a lot about that poster.

[Fledermaus]

AMEN...and AMEN!

I'm getting sick of the media's hindsight. Especially when they never bother to shine that light on themselves and their horrible opinions and reporting before the war about the THOUSANDS of soliders that would die, etc.

They even loved to play the "Saddam will use his chemical weapons against our troops and kill thousands" and then whine "where are the WMD's?"

Jerks, idiots, a-holes, human scum.

[Fledermaus]

FOX clearly reported that it's on a rotation basis and it just happened that it was their turn that day.

BSNBC and the rest of the whiners just proved they aren't fit to report the wiping of their own butts.

As every pool reporter from TV, TV video, newspaper, radio, etc. have said, they go where the news is and that was the news. And strings are contanstly attached to their jobs.

The whining is, as usual, a non-story written by spoiled rotten vermin that just hate Bush and hate the military and hate the country they make hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars a year whining about.

Don't you just wish you could beam them all to North Korea or Cuba and see how long they could practice their BS they call "journalism"?

[kitkat]

***I would love to see the Bush campaign use that footage in his reelect Bush commercials.***

I would, too.

[RJayneJ]

Quote of the Day by Sapper26

[Joe Boucher]

You have to remember that it is mot just Mr. Bush that will be running commercials in favor of his reelection.
I would bet the mortgage that support groups will run footage of each of these two events,(the carrier landing and the Bagdad visit) to help. These will be widely accepted by those who support him and attacked by the dumbasses who oppose him.
Was inspired and proud as can be when I saw him and the reaction the real American men gave him.
The hell with the Metrosexual candy asses.

[PeoplesRepublicOfWashington]

I agree with you completely. In fact, I seem to recall that Bush stated from the Lincoln's flight deck that the war wasn't over and that there would be more casualties. The 'Rats are simply liars--subscribers to Goebbel's big lie theory. Unfortunately the big lie works with all too many weak-minded people.

[woofer]

Don't you just wish you could beam them all to North Korea or Cuba and see how long they could practice their BS they call "journalism"?

They wouldn't miss a beat. They'd keep on bashing America and Bush, the only exception would be the inclusion of a bunch of "comrade this" and "comrade that" throughout their commentary.

[William McKinley]

The number of attacks on American troops has escalated in recent months along with casualties

This is not true. In October, there were 70 casualties. This is less than in May (117 casualties), June (72 casualties), and July (124 casualties), for example.

I don't have the numbers for August or September.