WP: The Barriers Between President and People

[kskiska]

(snip)

The multimillion-dollar inauguration -- attended by thousands -- will have the illusion of being a public event, but because of the particular nature of the office and of the moment, the American people will be participating in an exhilarating democratic drama in which the leading character has grown more distant with each new administration. It has been happening for a while.

And now: Maybe it's the sense of uncertainty in the world around him; maybe it's the sense of certainty in the heart within him, but this president has become further and further separated from everyday American life.

(snip)

About Bush, she says, "All of his interactions with the public are in controlled sessions."

These days the president has no accessible presence: His public life has been privatized. Celebrations like the inauguration underscore the point.

(snip)

But the Bush administration, Wilkins says, is different in tone from earlier administrations "because there is such a certainty that emanates from them about the rightness of what they do."

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19312-2005Jan18.html

[autorank]

1. Well good for them. Why don't they stop their Repuke cheer leading?

[zann725]

2. I'm sorry???? Translated, that means????

"...a CERTAINTY that emanates"...

Enough said.

[cornermouse]

3. Delusional is more accurate.

The fact is, Bush has never, ever been anywhere near an actual everyday American life.

[SammyWinstonJack]

26. bu$h** hates us for our Freedoms.

It's clear that bu$h** holds great disdain for the American People. He actually thinks we are beneath him.

[radfringe]

4. why bother putting him out in front of the public

according to the "security rules" -- we aren't allowed to look at him anyways

they should just stick one of those Stepford animantronic dummys up on the podium -- no one would know the difference

[NYC]

5. Maybe they will.

Maybe that's why people can't look.

[saigon68]

7. Stepford animantronic dummys up on the podium

That's what we have !!! good point.

President Cheney behind the scenes is the real ruler. The Chimp is a dim-wit from Connecticut, who is placed before a microphone to chant Terra Terra Terra.

[Massachusetts]

12. Yup!

[Joyce78]

16. Stepford animantronic dummys up on the podium

Don't forget Stepford Flotus aka Pickles.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

10. Ummmm, and what do you think ** is? He _is_ "one of those

Stepford animatronic dummys"

and, as my friend, Joe Biden says.... "Get over it."

what a world.

[Lisa]

23. the Disney version ...

http://www.laughingplace.com/News-ID504770.asp




(Personally, I don't think it's an accurate likeness -- the hair is fuller and the jaw shape is different. Maybe that was on purpose? I'd say the animatronic is better-looking than the real guy, but then again, the trashcan down the hall is better-looking -- and more useful -- than the real guy.)


By the way, did anyone see "Journeys with George"? I thought it was very revealing. After all that phony glad-handing, the last shot is of Bush way up on the podium, inaccessible to the public.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

25. Au contraire

The difference would be obvious immediately:

the Stepford President would be smarter, act appropriately, and be under someone's control.

[leftchick]

6. ... or maybe it is the sense I have that he is....

a paranoid psychotic individual?

[LibeMatt]

8. In this case...

...however, there probably are a lot of people out to get him.

Of course, given his previously paranoid and psychotic actions this isn't all that surprising...

(i.e. bankrupting this nation for the benefit of his rich and sociopathic supporters, lying his way into a war which has killed 50-100,000 people, trying to force large numbers of seniors back into poverty; and that's just a start)

[Straight Shooter]

9. "... there is such an arrogance that emanates from them ..."

"... about the self-righteousness of what they do." That's what should have been written, if they were interested in a bit of accuracy.

bush is out of touch.

[Supersedeas]

11. don't blame it on the office of the presidency....* was born that way

[Massachusetts]

13. Liberty and Elections

"We should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections". John Adadms

[Javaman]

14. Northridge earthquake and Clinton...

Clinton had balls and had a heart. When he spoke at Northridge after the quake, I drove over, parked my car and walked up and saw him speak. People liked him.

Now we have a prez* that cloisters himself away from the public, surrounds himself with brownshirt yes men, and lives in a paranoid universe, hmmm, I'm reading, "the fall of Berlin" right now, sounds alot like hitler.

[freedom_to_read]

15. Inaugeral history

All this talk of the way the inaugeration has turned from a ceremony celebrating American togetherness into a multimillion dollar boondoggle for GOP contributors reminds me of reading about the inaugeration of Andrew Jackson, our country's first "peoples' President":

Although Jackson is said to have slipped quietly into the Capitol in February 1829, his inauguration seemed to predict the tone of his administration. The usually uninhabited town of Washington, D.C., was packed with inaugural onlookers who saw Jackson as a savior. Cheering was heard when Jackson emerged on the steps of the capitol to take the presidential oath, muffling the oath as well as the inaugural address. The throng crowded the new president as he made his way to the White House.

The inaugural ball has been recorded by history as a raucous event that showed little discipline or culture. Participants in the festivities ranged from the highest members of the American political elite to the mud-covered agrarian element so strongly represented by the Jeffersonian ideal. The crowd became so rowdy that Jackson was forced to slip out of the White House secretly. As the party was moved outside, many of the guests used all exits, including windows, to be present for the ice cream and wine. Even though his inauguration seemed to symbolize the excesses of democracy, to many of his day, it was a refreshing wind that removed the corruption and incompetence of an antiquated system and installed a new era of rule by the people.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/inauguration/lesson_jackson.html

Sigh, where has our country gone?

[shantipriya]

17. ELECTED Arisocracy!!!

What a pitiful state of democracy when ordinary citizens cannot and/or will not meet and mingle with the President!

[newyawker99]

24. Hi shantipriya!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[ZanZaBar]

18. The man is scared half to death, jumping at his own shadow.. N/T

[jmcon007]

19. explain to me now......

".......but this president has become further and further separated from everyday American life."

At what point, pray tell, in this man's life was he EVER close to 'everyday American life." ?

[alfredo]

20. The barrier should be in miles and steel. Bush needs to be

brought before the world court for war crimes.

[fooj]

21. "certainty that emanates"=extreme arrogance...

"controlled sessions"=propaganda
Well, I'll be damned...it is about time! Let's hope more MSM's follow...

[Canuckistanian]

22. Regarding "certainty"

Bush apparently acts from some nebulous principled reality where he doesn’t need facts to make up his mind. God help us if that is true, Stalin had that level of moral certainty, Hitler had that level of moral certainty, Mao had that level of moral certainty. They are not the role models I prefer our leaders to resemble in the area of moral certainty. The man who cannot argue on the points but knows the right course when he sees it is the quintessential demagogue.

-Henri Reynard

From Watchblog:
http://www.watchblog.com/democrats/archives/001619.html

[daleo]

27. What about the species barrier between chimps and humans.

And murderous chimps at that.