Bush's 'Elmer Gantry' Politics (Robert Parry)

[DemoTex]

A central media narrative of Election 2000 was that Al Gore was a calculating politician who would do whatever it took to win, while George W. Bush was just a regular guy who spoke from the heart, wasn’t obsessed with winning, and disdained political calculation.

This narrative – combined with attacks on Gore’s honesty – was decisive in making Election 2000 close enough for Bush to seize victory despite losing the national popular vote. But new disclosures suggest that the dominant media narrative of that historically important campaign was way off the mark.

Not only did Bush display a political ruthlessness by stopping the vote-counting in Florida in December 2000, but just-released tape recordings reveal an ambitious Gov. Bush in 1998 honing his religious pitch to conservative Christians, rehearsing how he would nail down their support by stressing his devotion to Jesus Christ.

The tapes were recorded by Doug Wead, a longtime Bush family adviser who counseled both George Bushes on how to talk to religious conservatives. Wead’s strategies first surfaced before the 1988 presidential campaign as he gave pointers to then-Vice President George H.W. Bush on how to “signal” messages to Christian fundamentalists. (More ..)

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/022105.html


It's the hypocrisy, stupid.