Bushjr to give a series of speeches to sell the war - redux

[salin]

Am I mistaken, but in May of 2004 weren't we told that bush was going to give a series of speeches (six, was it) to explain the war and plans to the public (eg "get the public behind it again") - he gave one speech... was asked about whether or not he had made any mistakes - made silly responses (no mistakes that I can think of... gee if I had had that question in advance, with time to think about it....)

And a month ago it was proclaimed by the WH and repeated endlessly by rwers that he was going to give a series of speeches (again - to resell the war to the public) and gave exactly one... this time followed by reporting that not only was their NO wild response by the military crowd, but that the only applause was tepid, and was spurred by a WH staffer... and that the speech was supposed to last about 15 minutes longer than it did, because they had timed it with applause wait time?

Is my memory foggy? Where were the rest of the speeches? And why am I not reading/hearing about a) the lack of the rest of the speeches this year; b) the lack of the speeches last year; c) the pattern... and d) (most importantly) what the calling off of the speeches suggest... He can't just "sell it" and public opinion drops when he tries.

Why is this significant? Because after 9/11 these folks thought they could "sell" anything to the public. That they could propagandize us into anything regardless of whether or not it was really popular with the public. That using Madison Avenue marketing pitches (read the April 2002 article by Josh Green on "The Other War Room" in the Washington Monthly - can still google it and get it, to see how this is done) was no longer working.

Yes the repubs are clearly still able to steamroll egregious legislation through congress. I am in no way saying WooHoo "A sign, a sign, we are winning." I am saying, however, that the dynamics have shifted. They know it. Bush - as a source of bullypulpit momentum - is more than lame - I think per the bullypulpit he is effectively neutered.

But perhaps my memory is incorrect and each time there was only to be One Big Speech (flop!)

[Inland]

1. Bush's speeches now reserved for small groups of true believers

the ones that don't care if he's telling the truth or making sense.

It seems that Bush's PR campaigns, whether for SS or the war or whateever actually turn off more people than they turn on, he's such a bad speaker with a suchy crappy agenda that more exposure simply makes it worse.

[salin]

2. What is curious to me, is that both times the series of speeches were

loudly trumpeted in advance. His "taking it to the people". Over and over we were told.

Why did they think that this year would be different than last year? Why the big PR promo in advance? Then why the absolute silence of commentary on the lack of the rest of the speeches; both times?

[Inland]

3. Maybe the trailer is better than the movie.

Or maybe the trailer is better at getting people excited and getting news coverage than a boring, insipid, confusing movie with a shitty ending. And nobody notices when the movie never comes to your neighborhood.

After all, if we've learned one thing, it's that there is no connection between what the WH says is going to happen and what happens. They are two discrete events.

[GoBlue]

4. The war is over, haven't you heard?

It is now the Global World Struggle Against Violent Extremists (GSAVEs for short). Bush is pissed because he wanted it to be named the World Struggle Against Violent Extremists or WSAVEs for short. But Karl thought that was going too far. Stay tuned for further developments...

[salin]

5. hahaha -

almost had a soda on the keyboard incident.