Earlier today, I ran across a minute long commercial for Fahrenheit 9/11 on TV. Out of nothing more than morbid curiosity I threw away sixty seconds of my life and watched. What really struck me is that every time Bush was shown, it was a scene of him being funny. It was presented in a way to give the impression that he's not very bright, or perhaps a pawn of big, evil corporations.
Despite the clever editing, I found myself laughing with Bush, not at him. Did I ever feel dumb! I couldn't even follow along with the spoon fed anti-Bush propaganda. I must just be a slow learner.
Or maybe I know something liberals don't. For whatever bad you could say about the President, he's a very genuine person. If you show a tape of him while he's being witty and charming, you simply can't edit that out. At best, you can present it as sinister and insincere, but for that to succeed relies on the naivete of the individual viewer.
Anyone who can't see his way past F/911s emotional insincerities wouldn't stand a chance of seeing his way past any intellectual ones. Regardless of what you think of his policies, Bush is a good man. If you can't see that for yourself, you'll probably believe anything bad about him.
I'm half with you, I really like Bush as a person and as a Leader but not someone with a say in Federal spending or influencing the growth of government.
Same here and a bravo to your beautifully stated assessment of his character above.
Many Americans also felt the same after 9/11 which is why the left had to set out to destroy his character. They couldn't just create minor scandals because people believed in his honesty, dedication to the country and his intelligence. They only way the left could claw back into power was by destroying the public's perception of Bush in those areas.
The never-ending vicious onslaught has successfully chiseled away at the support he had from average Democrats and we are back to a country passionately divided. That wouldn't worry me too greatly regarding the re-election, but some folks on the right add their fuel to the fire and become useful tools for the left aiming to replacing Bush with U.N. adoring, hate-America Kerry. Thanks for jumping and bringing your wisdom to the subject at hand :-)