Was the confrontation between Bush and questioner today a setup?

[springhill]

Interest take from Buzzflash. What do you think?

Call Us Paranoid, But Was the Question Challenging Bush at a "Town Hall Meeting" a Set Up: Bush Sounded Ready for the Question and His Answer Was Right Out of a Karl Rove Script. The Sequence of Issues Raised in the Question Also Seem to Play Right Into Rove's Wedge Issue Strategy. Very Odd, Indeed. 4/7

A man who identified himself as Harry Taylor rose at a forum here to tell Bush that he's never felt more ashamed of the leadership of his country.

He said Bush has asserted his right to tap phone calls without a warrant, to arrest people and hold them without charges and to revoke a woman's right to an abortion, among other things. (Watch as the man confronts the president -- 1:41)

He was booed by the audience, but Bush interrupted and urged the audience to let Taylor finish.

"I feel like despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration," Taylor said, standing in a balcony seat and looking down at Bush on stage. "And I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and grace to be ashamed of yourself."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/04/06/bush.ap/index.html

[sandnsea]

1. Not according to this post at Kos

Bush just has his programmed lines, all he has to do is repeat them, never has to think. Easy stuff for a sociopath.

"Frankly, I was shocked he answered the phone. After having read the whitehouse transcript, I had to find the guy and thank him personally. I found myself at a bit of a loss of words - especially since he began thanking me for calling him. We spent about 15 minutes chatting. The guy is genuinely down-to-earth, and I wish I lived closer so that I could go buy him a beer.

The guy is genuine, modest, sincere, and honest. He is shocked by all of this, and according to him, it "was not planned."

He went on to say that 'it had to be done' and that he can not believe how people can still support 'that guy' - that he has never really been politically active until a few years ago, when he felt he just had to do something.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/6/21185/97610

[pacalo]

14. He's going to be on CNN in the morning.

Sounds like even the "pre-approved" audiences are wising up:

I asked him how the crowd reacted - afterwards, as he left, and as his day has gone on. He said that there was not one negative thing said to him while he was there, and that 4 people actually came up to him and shook his hand. One guy stopped him in the parking lot - Harry couldn't understand how anyone would recognize him - and thanked him.

He said that he took another call today from a military wife in Colorado Springs who called to thank him for saying WHAT SHE AND THE REST OF HER FRIENDS CAN NOT. You can tell that just the idea that people can not speak out truely bothers him.

[ThoughtCriminal]

2. I think it would have been more "Strawman"

if it was a set up.

[Canuckistanian]

3. Shrub seemed very confident

Without a script, he:

A)Was quick on his feet

B)Had good sound bite answers

and

C)Didn't mangle his words once.

Yup. We've been had.

[laundry_queen]

26. I saw the whole thing on CNN

And I will say that after the guy was finished there was a very long pause and a lot of stuttering and stumbling and shrub sure didn't look like he was quick on his feet to me, it looked, um, painful.

[Canuckistanian]

28. Guess I should watch the video

Before I go shooting my mouth off. But I was going by other people's impressions.

[Swamp Rat]

29. Here's a direct link:

http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Taylor-critizes-.mov

[Canuckistanian]

30. Thanks!

Damn. Quicktime. Now I've GOTTA update my driver.

Oh, well, anything for the cause...

:D

[Swamp Rat]

33. OK, try this direct link (Windows Media Player):

http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Taylor-critizes-Bush.wmv

[WatchWhatISay]

4. Do dogs bark?

Does morning follow darkness?
Does rain make plants grow?

I think all of these people are setups, even the ones who appear to be asking "tough" questions.

[Raksha]

20. Oh, come on...NOBODY accused Helen Thomas of being a setup

or part of some Rovean script. In fact, DU showered her with roses because she didn't just "appear" to be asking tough questions, she really WAS asking tough questions. But then Helen Thomas has a proven track record for integrity, and this guy is an unknown...or WAS an unknown until today anyway.

[longship]

5. Ridiculous

Why must people turn every good thing into something sinister?

This is unbelievable. Finally, a guy asks some pointed and direct comments of the President and the tin foil hat crowd comes out of the walls spewing rubbish about the guy being a "plant".

I'd like to know what sinister forces are behind Helen Thomas' grilling of Chimp a couple weeks ago. I suppose that Helen's really a plant, too. She's been replaced by an alien duplication machine which ChimpCo and their evil scientists have perfected (along with the invisible explosives and invisible missiles used on 9/11).
:sarcasm:

[WatchWhatISay]

6. Why is it so hard to believe?

Have they not been doing it for years, with their over-produced performances, complete with hand-picked audiences, slick backdrops, and cooperative media?

Bet they couldn't possibly manipulate voting either, right?

[robbibaba]

10. It's a little hard to believe

just because Bush was so adroit. I found myself feeling astonished. I have seen the jackass make such a fool of himself so many many times that his smooth response startled me.

[springhill]

9. I don't think it's that farfetched..........

When he thanked the President for letting him speak, that he was glad he lived in a country where this was possible, I thought, boy, what a strange thing to say in the middle of his critique. Just didn't seem to go with the rest of what he was saying.

[MUAD_DIB]

11. It has nothing to do with any ind of foil.

To listen to it, listen to the query and then hear the answer just seemed too canned for it to be real.

Remember: Bush gets testy when he is taken to task for anything.


Where was the anger today? It all felt just a little too scripted.



I could always be wrong.

[chill_wind]

7. Man, I never thought of that

except that it was so completely extraordinary and uncharacteristic of these events, and on any other given day, a couple of thugs in suits with earpieces probably would have been dragging him outside on the mere basis of a t-shirt or a bumper-sticker out in the parking lot-- before he could even get half-finished.

Sort of a real live 'straw-man' rhetorical device (he's become famous for)- for him to knock down, you mean?

HOW TO explain this complete anomaly?

[Crazy Guggenheim]

8. There is a Harry Taylor who donates to Repubs from Newport, N.C.

http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=NC&last=Taylor&first=harry

Let's check this out!

[dweller]

13. K&R

:popcorn:

dp

[Cronus Protagonist]

19. Here's that man's picture

that, that patriot guy...

http://bushspeaks.com/home.asp?did=217

[blogslut]

23. Charlotte NC, not Newport

I did some Googling on Taylor from today.

This is his bio:

http://www.ccimnet.com/jsp/agents/agent_overview.jsp?agentID=2105

He does work in land sales (infill projects?) according to these articles:

http://www.ciremagazine.com/article.php?article_id=204
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/business/columnists/doug_smith/13987041.htm
http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2006/02/27/newscolumn2.html

And as someone mentioned in another thread, he's a member of the Charlotte Folk Society:

http://www.folksociety.org/about.shtml

[Crazy Guggenheim]

24. I found that too. How close is Newport to Charlotte? But I think he

might be for real.

[blogslut]

27. I have no idea

but that dude on Newsmeat is listed as retired in all his donations. The Taylor from today is still currently working in real estate as far as I can tell.

I don't know real or not real. Maybe the guy's a plant but from his comments to reporters afterwards, I don't think so. I think he might just be a quiet, affable-looking fellow that slipped in through the gates. I think Dubya's response to him was weak at best.

[Jigarotta]

12. it could have been a set up against him by his own handlers.

now let's get really wierd.
bush was expecting this, maybe, (seemed so, he did take it in a stride a bit surprising) but he was warned this would be and was told something his softball brain accepted. Meanwhile, back at the even more dangerous ranches, the real people in power want him to fuck up so bad and look so dismal so incompetent...

then I lose my story.
developing.

[stillcool]

17. well now see....your take...

I find plausible...or maybe the point was to make bush more credible?

[Canuckistanian]

32. LOL! Good theory, let me know how it turns out!

The WH is probably a massive snake pit right now and I'd believe anything.
:rofl:

[MrPrax]

15. Me Thinks So--

My first thought when I read it earlier was it was 'staged' so Bush could drop this line:

"You said would I apologize for that?" Bush told him. "The answer is absolutely not."

Is this the new 'frame' Bush is trying to suggest that lies at the heart of the unconstitutional wiretapping questions being asked in Congress? Nobody is asking him to apologize, but he is characterizing, dare I say trivializing, what really is the main issue.

The questioner (Harry Tyler) uses words normally associated with conservative values: "compassion and common sense" "humility and grace to be ashamed of yourself."...seems more like the words a conservative minister would use to chastise one of the flock, privately after Church.

I notice the CNN has this 'apology' front and center in the paragraph and the whole narrative of this charade is also front and center: Bush meets his critics and comes out swinging as a man of principles.

You never get the sense that Bush is in trouble like he always looks when he deigns himself to talk to the rabble press. Those exchanges are testy--whereas this 'exchange' with an average American is warm and congenial with a sort of 'we agree, to disagree' professionalism.

Cheap theatre and a distraction for the local news broadcasts.

[MsMagnificent]

16. Plausible

It gave * an opportunity for rebuttal (which he is strangely and glibly prepared for) while associating keywords to him like "compassion" and "common sense". Also note the 'protestor' "Hopes" that * "...has 'humility' and 'grace'".


Upon watching the exchange a few times, I am more convinced: it sets * up to describe his platform and righteously declare 'he won't apologize'.
Yah, it stinks... it's a little tougher straw man, but it's still a straw man and Bush won this one as he does all his 'arguments' by knocking said straw man down with one of his standard chestnuts: 'I will not apologize for protecting the 'murkin people'.

[jbnow]

34. bush was self righteous

and did "describe his platform and righteously declare 'he won't apologize'." but that was not at all responsive to the man's question. Harry Taylor didn't ask bush to apologize. bush might not have stumbled on words but his words were no answer. He was not glib, he was a parrot, repeating his stock phrase and it did not fit.

I thought the question was well done. I'm sure it was prepared, if you go there hoping to have a question you think it out ahead of time. He said a lot in a short time...and his point seemed to be the shame he felt in the leadership, not a demand for an apology for spying.

[jonas_stradlater]

18. I don't think the guy was a stooge

but it goes without saying that his statements were pre-approved and he was allowed to say them by Bush's handlers. Maybe it was just me but I thought the guy was rather sincere when he said,
"I see you assert your right to tap my telephone, to arrest me and hold me without charges, to try to preclude me from breathing clean air and drinking clean water and eating safe food. If I were a woman, you'd like to restrict my opportunity to make a choice and decision about whether I can abort a pregnancy on my own behalf."
I thought that was well-stated. Either way, Bush's steadfast approval of this illegal spying on Americans will haunt him and just proves once again he is a fucking asshat of epic proportions.

[roguevalley]

21. I believe he was real. Besides, nothing bush could say could

erase the content of Harry's speech, including the shame remark. Bush couldn't and didn't help himself.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

22. If he was a plant then it failed. The news is carrying how someone told

Bush off.

:popcorn:

[Imagevision]

25. Do you have to be a genius to install MANY "plants" for Bush

especially when he's so freegin laid back instead of his deer in the headlights reaction.

[blogslut]

31. DailyKos has the skinny

Two Kossaks(sp) called Taylor personally and another states he is a member of her MoveOn chapter:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/6/21185/97610