From Salon: After Katrina, country no longer believes in Bush

[im10ashus]

Breach of a myth
After Katrina, the country no longer believes in Bush the protector. His presidency is ruined.

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By Sidney Blumenthal


Sept. 15, 2005 | Bush's America is gone with the wind. It lasted just short of four years, from Sept. 11, 2001, to Aug. 29, 2005. The devastation of New Orleans was the watery equivalent of a dirty bomb, but Hurricane Katrina approached the homeland with advance warnings, scientific anticipation and a personal briefing of the president by the director of the National Hurricane Center, alerting him about a possible breaching of the levees. It was as predictable as though Osama bin Laden had phoned in every detail to the television networks. No future terrorist attack would or could be as completely foreseen as Katrina.

Bush's entire presidency and reelection campaign were organized around one master idea: He stood as the protector and savior of the American people under siege. On this mystique he built his persona as a decisive man of conviction and action. In the 2004 election, a critical mass of voters believed that because of his unabashed patriotism and unembarrassed religiosity he would do more to protect the country. They also believed that his fervor must be strength. The criticism of Bush that he was overzealous, simplistic and single-minded only served to reinforce his image.

The deepest wound is not that he was incapable of defending the country but that he has shown he lacks the will to do so. In Bush's own evangelical language, he revealed his heart.

Overnight, the press disclosed a petulant, vacillating president it had not noticed before. It was as if there were a new man in the White House. Time magazine described a "rigid and top-down" White House where aides are petrified to deliver bad news to a "yelling" president. Newsweek reported that two days after the hurricane, top White House aides, who "cringe" before the "cold and snappish" president, met to decide which of them would be assigned the miserable task of telling Bush he would have to cut short his summer vacation. "The reality, say several aides who did not wish to be quoted because it might displease the president, did not really sink in until Thursday night."

cont'd.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2005/09/15/bush_myth/index_np.html

[henslee]

1. So how many more jaw spasms til he's retired to Crawford a dribbling wino?

[crispini]

2. Link?

tks

[soleft]

4. You'll have to do the one day pass thing

http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2005/09/15/bush_myth/print.html

[soleft]

3. It was easier for Bush to renounce alcohol at age 40 than ideology at almo

Wow, what a great line.

[im10ashus]

5. Yeah. I laughed out loud at that one. n/t

[Window]

6. Good article.

Thanks for sharing.

Peace

[im10ashus]

7. Blumenthal always has a nice edge. n/t