Rhetorical Poser
May 20th, 2004Something I’ve been thinking about since the neo-con zeitgeist began showing signs of self-implosion (starting with the incidents at Abu Ghraib) is how the President plans to maintain a semi-credible voice of reason with the American people during the upcoming election. Clearly, it was much easier to point evil fingers at Saddam Hussein when it was accepted that he was the only one doing the torture. But the stale air of hypocrisy in Bush’s knee-jerk deliveries might make things more difficult for him in light of current events. If things keep going as they have in the last few weeks for his administration, and assuming only more embarrassing Bushims take place, some Republicans might prefer that George get his points across in some form of pantomime.
Tom Engelhardt examines this intriguing rhetorical breakdown over at TomDispatch.com.
And here’s the thing: As in Iraq, so at home Bush has backed himself into a strange stump-speech cul de sac. Though from the point of view of many of us, the story in that speech has never had much relationship to reality, there was clearly something deeply convincing and reassuring about it if only you were willing to take that first step inside.