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Harry, please
continue to advise and explain the president. His detachment is activating these protestors, including military
families and veterans, in the first place. Your defense that all of the
dissenters are just there for the politics is not surprising, but it is a
profound mistake to assume all dissenters are manipulated. This is real, just
as the distress and outcry of the Terri Schiavo case. Politics and
governance is more than a game of chess; it is a connection, of trust, shared
values and common purpose. With
your help, Bush can enjoy more dissatisfaction and lower numbers, further weakening
his vulnerable credibility. Since this
thread began, more “conservatives” and Republicans are publicly abandoning the
White House’s ‘stay the course’ strategy. Please, continue advising Bush, all
the way through the 2006 and into 2008. Again, imagine how “it’s also important for me to go on with my life” sounds to
the families of active-duty, dead and maimed soldiers, much less orphaned
children and enemy combatants in “Talk to Cindy”
is not about one woman, its “talk to us”, give us the people some straight
answers, not more regurgitated rhetoric and declarations that don’t square with
reality. Karen Karen, For the President to take time out personally
in a small room to meet families is a plus. Are you suggesting he should address them all
from a rostrum in the Gym? The fact is that whatever he does it will be
condemned by his opponents – which is fair. But Cindy has been grabbed by the Demos as a
great way to embarrass Bush. That’s fair too – it’s part of politics. Just as
that poor brain-dead girl became a political football. Sometime between her seeing Bush and now, Cindy
has become political and every bit of political capital will be squeezed out of
it by her handlers. Meantime Lance is trying to get increased money
for cancer research with his bike ride. Bush knows this, everyone knows this, everyone
approves and hopes Lance will succeed. Yet, this became: ‘In addition to the two-hour bike ride, Bush's
Saturday schedule included an evening Little League Baseball playoff game, a
lunch meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a nap, some fishing and
some reading. "I think the people want the president to be in a
position to make good, crisp decisions and to stay healthy," he said when
asked about bike riding while a grieving mom wanted to speak with him.
"And part of my being is to be outside exercising."’ This is probably accurate, but look at the
beautiful spin – again perfectly fair, but don’t assume it’s not a political
statement. He saw the grieving mom – he just won’t see the political mom. Harry Of course, Bush did look Cindy in the eye a couple of months ago. Now, it’s a Move-on.com political ploy. Harry Yes, Pres. Bush has, by White House accounts,
visited privately with at least 900 military grieving families. They are
usually separated into rooms on a base or in a gym and he goes from one family
to the next, like a doctor seeing patients, each family getting an allotted
amount of time. Some even accost him verbally, and he has been emotionally
impacted by the experience, as well as his wife. This is much different than answering
questions from an articulate mother who has gotten over being polite as a
matter of respect for the president, after it was revealed that the WMDs
weren’t there, that the war’s planners didn’t account for reality, that many
soldiers are not well protected, and the rhetoric fails to acknowledge the
costly mistakes. It leaves many otherwise patriotic Americans angry at the
disconnect between the sales and the customer service this administration
practices. The hardest words for GWB to say: I made a mistake. While I agree the magnitude of Camp Casey
itself (now joined in Crawford by a pro-Bush Camp Qualls) has taken on further
dimensions (Bushstock 2005 will have events in DC late September) the public
outpouring of conflicted opinion and restless frustration is genuine. That’s
reflected in the poll released today by ARG showing Bush’s approval ratings at
36%, a six point drop since July, and lower than Nixon’s during the height of
Watergate. This poll, by the way, was taken the first weekend of August, before
the Sheehan Effect could be a factor and relates to dissatisfaction with
domestic policy (gas prices, job worries, credibility issues). Whatever
Bush is selling, as they say, fewer Americans seem to be buying it. This ARG poll was all over the broadcast and
internet media today, but not likely the rightwing media, so I’m sharing it
with you from my next Casey Report dispatch:
President Bush deserves vacation time,
certainly, but he didn’t help himself to any remaining sympathy with his
untimely comments about R&R during his five week vacation, which now
exceeds the record time Reagan spent vacationing in 8 years: It’s hard work, but Bush will ‘go on with life’: defends
refusal to see protesting mother. “President Bush, noting that lots of people
want to talk to the president and "it's also important for me to go on
with my life,"
on Saturday defended his decision not to meet with the grieving mom of a
soldier killed in "But,"
he added, "I think it's also important
for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life." The comments came prior to a bike ride on the ranch with journalists
and aides. It also came as the crowd of protesters grew in support of Sheehan,
the On Friday, Bush's motorcade drove by the protest site en route to a
Republican fund-raising event at a nearby ranch. As Bush rolled by, Sheehan
held a sign that said, "Why do you make time for donors and not for
me?" Imagine how “it’s also important for me to go
on with my life” sounds to the families of dead soldiers, much less orphaned
children in KwC |
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