Me: Frank Lynch

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One of the points which came out of the Libby trial was how sorely the White House worked to manage the news: Cheney's office, for instance, thought of Tim Russert's show as an easy platform, and that giving Russert access to Cheney could only work in its favor. It wasn't discussed at the trial, but we all remember how just before the invasion, Cheney was on MTP and claimed that Iraq had "reconstituted its nuclear weapons". Months after the invasion, back on the same show, Russert could have challenged Cheney on that suspect claim, but instead offered Cheney a fig leaf, referring to it as a "misstatement." (Oddly, Cheney had ample time to correct that before the invasion but didn't.)

Now it seems the White House has bristled over the way Bush was edited in an interview with NBC's Richard Engel, writing NBC a letter of complaint. Not that anything significant was left out. Just the Bush Administration trying to work the refs, as Eric Alterman might say.

I hope everyone remembers the 2006 mid-terms, when Bush voiced support for Rumsfeld prior to the voting, but afterwards admitted he was lying about Rumsfeld as well as the situation in Iraq, purely for political purposes what with the elections approaching. Engel looked at Bush with genuine skeptixism, something the latter doesn't get in his gab fests with conservative journalists and town halls with hand-picked audiences. Naturally he bristled. (And we wonder what treatment the White House might have feared from the 9/11 Commission, based on the terms they forced.)
Link | | | 10:11 PM | Home
 

A Republican takes the high road. Genuinely. The office of Senator Bob Corker has come out against his state party's focus on Michelle Obama in You Tube videos posted on its site, and plainly stated that the GOP needs to focus on issues, not negativity.

Bravo for him. Unfortunately, his local party doesn't get it: "Judging from the temper tantrum they’re tossing today over our light-hearted video..." Light-hearted. Sure. And Rush Limbaugh is only an entertainer.
Link | | | 10:38 PM | Home
 

Bush and Obama. Yesterday I talked about how the Bush presidency has entered a period of malaise, a state which used to be so frequently associated with the Jimmy Carter years. It's interesting to see how different leaders respond in similar situations, but first I think it makes sense to define the parameters of Bush malaise:

• We're mired in a war in Iraq, a country which posed no threat to us when Bush decided to invade it;
   
• We have rampant deficits, and they came after his predecessor's budget surplus;
   
• The artificial boom prompted by the free money policies of Fed Chief Alan Greenspan have been followed by a deflated home values, mortgage foreclosures, and huge drops in the housing market and construction;
   
• The war mentioned above doesn't look like it will end soon enough, and the moneys spent to maintain it cannot go to investing in the country's future.
   
• The nation faces rising gas prices, thanks not just to greater world-wide demand for energy but also because the supply from Iraq hasn't lived up to the pre-war promises made by the Hawks. Consequently, in an odd eversal of Iraq's "oil for food" program, Americans' budgets have to give greater consideration of food vs. oil.
   
• ...and with his foreign policy in a shambles, the dollar continuing to plummet vs. foreign currencies, a lot of foreign debt, the US is in an unusual state of dependency on the rest of the world.

When Carter found the country in crisis and gave his "malaise" speech, he called on Americans to team together and dig hard to make it through the energy crisis together, resetting the thermostats, carpooling, and so on.

And Bush? Like his ultimate response to 9/11, Bush is more interested in divisiveness than in bringing Americans together. Look at his speech today to the Knesset, where he suggested that Obama was acting like Neville Chamberlain for his willingness to meet with the leaders of other countries, friendly or not. Rather than deal directly with the problems which provide Obama an opening on the world stage, Bush (you know, the one who was so proud of his ability to reach across the aisle in Texas) shows no interest in uniting the country during these heady times, but prefers to demonize Obama.

This is all sleight-of-hand, of course: Bush doesn't want anyone to think about how Iran became prominent, or how invading Iraq was a mistake (and one made at the cost of apprehending OBL, for all that), or how he's basically made OBL an icon for the terrorists. Nope, not Bush: act as if Obama is the weak one.
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Are you better off than you were eight years ago? I'm not the type to blame every little flutter in the economy on the President of the United States, so when the LA Times and Bloomberg release a poll indicating growing money worries among Americans, I'm not the type to blame it all on the Preznit.

But I think there is a lot that's gone on in his tenure which, while it may not have been caused by him, created artificially high feelings of prosperity (and helped get him reelected in '04). First among them would have to be Alan Greenspan's loose credit policies, the ones which enabled people to cash out equity and live beyond their means. Any downturn after that is going to feel like one hell of a hangover, so context and developed spending patterns are a big factor when you try to understand Americans' current feelings.

At the same time, I don't think you can blame our involvement in Iraq for the current economic situation. But I'll tell you what you can blame on it: constraints on our ability to invest in America's future. And the "no end in sight" status quo — thanks to the Republicans in the Senate who have steadfastly blocked votes on the Iraq war — can't help Americans' feelings of malaise.

There, I wrote it. The "m" word which Republicans like to use to paint the Carter years. We are clearly stuck in a Bush malaise. There's really no other way to describe it: America is sitting on its hands waiting for January 20, knowing that nothing will happen in American government until then. Seeing as how government has already ground to a standstill, seems to me we may as well impeach the guy: government can't get any slower.
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Bob Barr has thrown his hat into the ring. A potential rival for conservative votes, Barr could be a threat to McCain. If nothing else, it will be interesting to see if the Wingnuts who were so in favor of Ralph Nader running will feel similarly about Barr.

Of course, given how they've used Ross Perot's popularity to make them feel better about Clinton beating Bush, maybe they want an excuse for losing the White House again.
Link | | | 10:27 PM | Home
 

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