Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose 3
Dick Polman on being bushwhacked (again):
The first five slogans are inoperative. But tonight, in yet another allegedly pivotal speech on Iraq, President Bush will declare that the sixth slogan is now operative.
With scant seconds remaining on the game clock, and facing fourth down and 50 on his own five-yard line, Bush is determined to throw the ball deep and simply hope for the best. But at this point the odds are heavily stacked against an immaculate reception. (OK, that exhausts my ability to employ football metaphors. Everyone else seems to be using the poker analogy.)
It does take a fair amount of gumption to decree a new troop escalation, in the face of deep skepticism or outright opposition from, among others, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. John Abizaid, British ally Tony Blair, gung-ho conservatives like retired Lt. Col. Oliver North (“Sending more U.S. combat troops is simply sending more targetsâ€), the majority of the people in red-state Utah, the majority of ’06 midterm election voters (who mistakenly assumed that their votes would sway the Decider), at least 10 Republican senators, and a landslide majority of the American people (who are currently telling pollsters that Bush is wrong).
Therefore, one cannot reasonably imagine how the president expects to achieve victory in the art of public persuasion. His spokesman Tony Snow said yesterday that Bush needs to “bring the public back to this war and restore public confidence in support for the mission,†but it’s hard to see how he can pull that off, given the fact that at this point most Americans either disbelieve his arguments, or have simply tuned him out.
And don’t just take my word for it. Read this verdict: “He has little credibility left on Iraq.†That’s the word from David Keene, veteran conservative Washington activist and the longtime chairman of the American Conservative Union.
There is no game plan. The subs are exhausted. And the spectators are leaving the building.
January 11, 2007 at 7:13 pm
I know you liberals idolize the French but you could at least make your titles in English.
January 11, 2007 at 9:52 pm
(Zing!) Jesus’ General would give you extra points on that!
The country that gave us Bridgette Bardot deserves a break.
“The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
January 12, 2007 at 1:23 pm
When my brother was a teen, some friends stopped by to see if he wanted to go the mall. He grabbed a t-shirt out of the laundry, noticed it was my sister’s but fit him OK, and he was off. It said something in French, but he didn’t know French and didn’t much care.
When he got home, my sister saw him and broke out laughing. The French on it? “The more I learn about men, the more I like my dog.”