I plan to be far, far away from a television set during the SOTU speech tonight. But no matter; Dan Froomkin provides a preview:
President Bush goes before a disaffected nation tonight to reassert his leadership — quite possibly by insisting repeatedly that he’s a leader with an obligation to lead at a time that requires leadership.
“Lead” certainly was the word of the day at the White House yesterday.
After his Cabinet meeting, Bush told reporters : “I can’t tell you how upbeat I am about our future, so long as we’re willing to lead. . . .
“We talked about how to make sure this economy of ours stays the strongest economy in the world, and that we recognize we can’t just sit back and hope for the best, that we’ve got to lead.”
And at the mid-day press briefing , spokesman Scott McClellan was typically unsubtle.
“We are living in historic times and, as the President has said, we have a responsibility to lead. . . . It’s important that we continue leading and acting to spread peace abroad and prosperity at home. The President is optimistic and confident about the path that we are on.”
Didn’t catch that?
The word for the drinking game crowd, boys and girls, is lead.
While you’re at WaPo, check out this story by David Finkel about Randolph, Utah, a town that in 2004 gave Bush “95.6 percent of the vote and support for him continues to be nearly unanimous.”
Randolph is “a place that seems less a part of the modern United States than insulated from it.”
There have been no funerals here from Bush’s war on terrorism. There are no unemployment lines, no homeless people sleeping in doorways, no sick people being turned away from a hospital because of a lack of insurance, no crime to speak of, no security fence needed around the reservoir, no metal detectors at the schools.
Terrorist threats? That’s anywhere but here. Iraq? That’s somewhere over there. Hurricane Katrina? That was somewhere down there. Illegal immigrants? Not here, where everyone is fond of Ramon, who came long ago from Mexico and is married to the Catholic woman, who is the one non-Mormon everyone mentions when the conversation turns to religious diversity. As for racial diversity, everyone says there are three African Americans in the county, including the twins on the high school cheerleading squad, which also includes a Hispanic, according to the superintendent of schools, Dale Lamborn, which means “we’ve probably got the most diverse cheerleading squad in the state.”
Finkel interviewed a number of locals, and boy, do they love President Bush. It’s still September 12, 2001, in Randolph, Utah.
I say slap Randolph, Utah, in a bell jar labeled “George Bush’s America” and put it in a museum, where it belongs.
It’s “Pleasantville”.
I know these kinds of people..they live where I live too…many very nice but loyal to the point of blindness. George could slap up Laura in front of them & they would find a good reason for it.I would like to know more about the .4 that didn’t vote for our clueless leader but I’m sure they would wish to remain anon in that community.
This blind loyalty will be the undoing, in the end. There are some who will never believe that Bush is bad (it took me 10 years to accept that Darth Vader really was Lukes father, so I guess I understand) but when they realize they have had the wool pulled over their eyes…watch out.
America is addicted to oil? Wouldn’t that be sustance abuse?
Let’s turn off the thermostats,and kick it cold turkey.
Boy oh boy. That article on Randolph made me shiver. Sorta sounds like a small town in Anywhere, Iran. Not much difference.
Here’s a couple of images about Republican “leadership”……..
First image:
Bush is standing among his close associates with Cheney manipulating Bush’s puppet strings, while the others standing there are urging Cheney about what to have ‘puppet Bush’ say or do next while impatiently waiting for a turn to pull his strings..
Second image:
We see the exact same picture from a zoom-out perspective, but in this second shot, a ray of light lets us see that everyone in the Bush group has attached puppet strings. Standing above and behind the Bush group, and controlling all the strings, are some laughing military-industrial and other big bizness ‘fat cats’, one of whom is saying, “I told you it was a good idea just to buy the whole government!”
Republicans can’t lead. They can’t even write legislation on their own…witness their allowing lobbyist buddies to write national legislation that, surprise, surprise, always is written to benefit those already wealthy and powerful, no matter what orwellian name is given the legislative act.