Posted on 09/03/2004 4:33:58 PM PDT by Pokey78
For an explanation of President Bush's enduring popularity, consider the horrible images from North Ossetia. Faced with men who can do such things, voters naturally prefer the President's religious certainties to his critics' sophistry.
This is worth pointing out because, for many Britons, Mr Bush's standing must be utterly bewildering. If your chief source of news were the BBC, it would be incomprehensible that such a dolt could command majority support.
Should he somehow win in November, the corporation will have a great deal of explaining to do. One thinks of the recent Iraq war, where BBC presenters kept telling us that allied troops were bogged down in a quagmire, that they faced a second Stalingrad and then, without a pause, that they were in Baghdad.
It is perhaps unfair to single out the Beeb. Plenty of other media in Britain, Europe and, indeed, America take the same view of Mr Bush. Yesterday's Independent, for example, did not confine its commentary to a leader and opinion column, but gave over its front page and several news pages to a rant by an American journalist rehearsing all the standard lines of attack on the 43rd president: that he is a Saudi pawn, a draft-dodger, a warmonger, an enemy of the poor, blah blah. Such newspapers are obviously entitled to their views. But how do they, or their readers, explain the opinion polls?
To understand Mr Bush's appeal, consider his keynote speech in New York. It was, we were told, inspired by FDR, but its central theme - "a safer world, a more hopeful America" - owed at least as much to Ronald Reagan. President Reagan, too, was written off by his domestic and foreign critics, portrayed by British cartoonists as a trigger-happy buffoon.
Yet he was one of the greatest figures of the post-war era. Where detractors saw a simpleton, keener observers saw a simple patriot who never allowed himself to become distracted from his two big themes: small government at home, military resolve abroad. On both questions, he was right, and he carried his country behind him by the force of his infectious optimism.
George W Bush understands this in his bones. Many years ago, when an interviewer put it to him that he was too dim to be president, he replied, with a twinkle in his eye: "That's what they said about Reagan."
Reagan-like, he has stuck to his two themes: carrying the fight to his country's foes while cutting taxes. He, too, communicates a cheerfulness that ordinary voters appreciate rather more than political commentators. In Fahrenheit 9/11, for example, Mr Bush is shown pledging to defeat the terrorists before returning to his golf swing. The scene is meant to indicate his unsuitability for office. Yet it is surely heartening to see a commander behaving with the nonchalance of Sir Francis Drake.
The same goes for Mr Bush's lack of nuance. European commentators winced at his phrase "axis of evil". Yet the concepts of good and evil mean more to American voters than to some Europeans. It may be that such language is often unsuited to the compromises and ambiguities of modern politics. But there are occasions when it is the only appropriate way of speaking.
Watching yesterday's news, it was hard to find other words. In such times, people understandably feel comfortable with a man who exudes confidence. George W Bush is their man.
EXACTLY
should read: and, especially, America
A few across the ocean get it.
Yup - and there's noone more ignorant than a Liberal Democrat, plain and simple...
"In such times, people understandably feel comfortable with a man who exudes confidence. George W Bush is their man."
Yesterday night, the President was confident, presidential in stature, and totally likeable. It was a killer combination that I believe will win him a second term in the White House.
well,...maybe a frenchman?
Fancy that...
The 'Graph gets it.
You mean a Liberal Democrat who smells?
You know - they should thank their lucky stars that we in America see and understand these "simple", "stupid dunce", non-nuanced, dim-wits. We pick these men and they save the world.
Look at what and who they value - Bill Clinton, John Kerry, Carter. Who have these men ever saved?
So was Winston Churchill.
George Bush is an Athenian of the Age of Pericles.
The pseudosophisticated, convoluted, hypernuanced leaders of Europe and Democrat America are decadent Romans of the failing and falling Empire.
Do I sense a subtle shift toward attacking the credibility of socialist'institutions' like the BBC? I'm not aware if this is a new turn or established but it would be amazing if some in England were laying the root for their own revolution in a generation to come.
Bravo!! Well said!!
This is a decent article about the president. Is this the UK paper that has been more understanding all along through the war on terror? I know there is at least one that is more fair in their reporting but I don't read them often enough to keep them straight.
It took this monstrous horror in Russia to wake up some abroad that GW is the man you'd want leading your country if you'd been attacked and thousands murdered. I suspect many in the US are deciding that Kerry's totally untrustworthy. In times of peril, character and integrity are everything, and he comes up woefully short.
Philosophy is the love of wisdom.Sophistry is the claim of wisdom itself.
If you presumtions include the idea that you are wise, you will find that you win all arguments, at least in your own mind. You will also find that your opponent will not be at all convinced.
The key point is that, as nearly as I can make out, there is no difference between claiming to be objective and claiming to be wise - which would if true define all "objective journalists" to be sophists.
Why Broadcast Journalism is
Unnecessary and Illegitimate
Just heard on Hannity's show that he saw a protestor's sign that read, "Where's John Hinkley when you need him?".
That says it all to me...what is the matter with these people? Why do they HATE Bush so much? I just don't get it.
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