[Wait4Truth]

Very interesting article!

[Wait4Truth]

Ping for our rope-a-dope President!!

[jwfiv]

It's really Gulliver against one or two Lilliputians, for the the rest will run like jackals before a lion.

[Verginius Rufus]

Matt Welch implies that Dick Cheney is an ex-military man. I was under the impression that that is not the case.

[DeFault User]

It's also most interesting that Bush has done it without any hyperbole, without name calling or heated rhetoric. He has allowed his enemies to put the noose around their necks, tighten it and hang themselves with their own stupidity.

[prognostigaator]

First, a top official (usually Bush, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld or a well-placed "source") makes some crazy-sounding cowboy threat -- to use conventional nuclear weapons, to unleash a furious invasion on the first full moon after Jan. 27, and so on. British newspapers, German politicians and Northern Californians dutifully recoil in horror.....

[TEXOKIE]

Very interesting analysis of how W does it!

"...Reports resurface of a Cabinet divided between Colin Powell and Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz, and leaks play down expectations of significant policy change. At the last possible moment, Bush's team coalesces behind a single idea, agreeing on a "compromise" which suddenly gives his critics exactly what they were demanding in the first place, often in the form of a yes-or-no vote. And the ground under everyone's feet shifts decisively yet again.

Bush has used this method to spectacular effect, over and over again, by threatening unilateral action. If there is anything that can unify Midwestern congressmen, French Gaullists and New York newspapers, it's indignation at the very notion that great decisions can be made without consulting them first.

On Aug. 26 of last year, for example, White House lawyers issued an opinion that Bush could go ahead and order an attack on Iraq if he wanted to, without Capitol Hill's blessing. "The President has to get congressional approval," shot back Dick Gephardt, the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives. "He must have a debate on this issue and a vote in the Congress."

Ten days later, Bush suddenly announced he would do just that, then scheduled the vote smack in the middle of the congressional election campaign. By November, Bush had his approval, and Gephardt was forced to resign as party leader after getting thumped at the polls...

This really does describe the technique, doesnt it?

[edwin hubble]

great post

[Irene Adler]

Bush throws out whatever action(s) he intends to take for public discussion. The left (rats and lamestream press) hysterically piss and moan and wet their collective pants while Bush waits patiently and sagely for them to get their hissy fit out of their system and for the public to grow tired of their whining, as well.

At the same time, the administration also marshals its supporters in Congress and the media to confront the rats and work on changing the terms of the debate in Bush's favor. Eventually, even many rats and lamestreams are practically BEGGING Bush to do what he intended to do all along, or very nearly what he intended to do, and he proceeds to take action.

I expect this tactic to work again and again for Bush because it's nearly impossible for rats and media people to resist the dynamic he sets up. Bush is really good at holding his fire, and his administration doesn't go all wobbly in the face of initial rat and media bitching. It's genius, really and very satisfying to watch it run its course.

[Brian Allen]

<< British newspapers, German politicians and Northern Californians dutifully recoil in horror. >>

Screw British newspapers, German politicians, Northern Californians, Chirac, Herr Schroeder and his Neo-Axis mate, Turd-Way-Tony" Blair -- and the entire cave full of murderously-moronic bloody thugs and savages on the East River!

It's America's REAL Enemies, the Psychopathological-Projection-Syndrome-constrained and dumber-than-Sonny-Liston-AND-planks "DemocRATS" Our Beloved FRaternal Republic's President and Armed Forces Commander In Chief, George Walker Bush, REALLY cares about.

And has by the balls!

[Mudboy Slim]

"As Jonah Goldberg of the UN-hating National Review put it, "Somehow, Bush managed, once again, to do exactly what his critics wanted him to and defeat them entirely in the process." This tactic has come to be known, by critics and admirers alike, as the "rope-a-dope" strategy, in honour of the novel way boxer Muhammad Ali defeated heavyweight champion George Foreman in Zaire 28 years ago. Faced with a much more powerful opponent, Ali taunted him before the fight ("You have heard of me before you were young. You've been following me since you were a little boy. Now, you must meet me, your master!" according to Norman Mailer's The Fight), surprised everyone by aggressively attacking Foreman in the first round, then spent the rest of the night leaning defensively against the ropes, deflecting and absorbing punishment, and successfully counter-punching with precision and surprise when the big man wore himself out."

Interesting article indeed, my FRiend...still, I totally disagree with any implication that the Pro-Liberation of Iraq folks were EVER "...faced with a much more powerful opponent..."!! America's held the high ground on the Iraqi Issue from the git-go, and it will be interesting to learn--in the decades that follow--how much of this perceived discord from within the Bush cabinet is fluff and smoke and mirrors, and how much was genuine disagreement between the Powell-led doves and the Rummy/Wolfowitz-led so-called Hawks.

FReegards...MUD

[JohnHuang2]

[Grampa Dave]

Those of us who know our president and his cabinet know that there two realities about any situation that is being discussed and managed by this administration:

#1. Those in the administration never talk to the media nor do they link stories about what is happening until they have fully wrapped up their policy of how to handle each situation.

#2. Those not in the adminstration with no connections to anyone in the administration, will lie, slander and create Fairy tales about what this administration is planning to do. This includes left wing whackos, mediot maggots and the so called old conservatives in the beltway.

We have seen their Bravo Sierra since days after the Supreme Court declared GW the winner in Florida. They remind me of Charlie Brown trying to kick the ball held by Lucy. Of course Lucy pulls the ball away at the last moment, and they fall on their petards and faces looking like total Rope a Dopes.

The administration and GW take fulll advantage of the liars and fairy tale spinners. The same liars/spinners, lie and spin which gets the Da$$hole, the Pello$i and the screaming TV heads screaming the same lies. Then, we see the repeating spectacle of the Rope a Dopers making fools out of themselves mouthing the lies and spins in the media and by the mediots.

Then reality comes out when the administration decides to make public what it is doing. Their rope a dope opponents smell and look like they stood for days under flocks of pigeons and seagulls after the birds gorged themselves with food. Or they look like Charlie Brown when Lucy takes away the football as they try to kick it, again, again, over and over.

We have same deluded Jackals here on Free Republic who become our local Rope a Dopes when they repeat the lies and spin from the other side trying to discredit GW and his administration.

[Jim Noble]

GWB is a master of this form of strategery, which is actually not rope-a dope (as Matt Welch acknowledges in his last paragraph), but rather is from "Uncle Remus".

I don't think the Old Europe has ever heard of B'rer Rabbit.

[Kip Lange]

Strategery.

[MeekOneGOP]

Which all begs the question: Is Bush bluffing?

NOOOOoooooo !

[redhead]

Bump!

[BOBTHENAILER]

It's not Ali-Foreman, it's Gulliver against a hundred Lilliputians.

Thought this line might ring a bell.