Supercritical Irony Concentration, Part 4(a)
Addendum to yesterday's analysis of Bush's Veterans Day speech.
The stakes in the global war on terror are too high, and the national interest is too important, for politicians to throw out false charges.
This didn't leap out at me yesterday, but today I was listening to Dan Bartlett on the Jim Lehrer News Hour who hammered on the point strong enough that I realized it's a talking point:
We shouldn't have political discussions that are reckless, baseless, and false. And that's what President Bush is doing. He's directing debate to the big issues that matter, not to baseless charges based on things that don't even stand up to scrutiny.
I was under the impression that after destroying John McCain in the 2000 campaign by accusing him of fathering an illegitimate black child, contracting venereal disease which he gave to his wife, and being mentally unstable and shell-shocked due to his torture in Vietnam Bush went on in the 2004 election to launch a campaign of against John Kerry so venomous that the verb "Swift Boating" was coined to be synonymous with "reckless, baseless, and false" statements.
I don't think Bush is going out of his way to accuse other people of his own crimes, I just think that at this point Bush's crimes are so broad and varied that it's difficult for him to accuse anyone of a political crime he hasn't committed.
The stakes in the global war on terror are too high, and the national interest is too important, for politicians to throw out false charges.
This didn't leap out at me yesterday, but today I was listening to Dan Bartlett on the Jim Lehrer News Hour who hammered on the point strong enough that I realized it's a talking point:
We shouldn't have political discussions that are reckless, baseless, and false. And that's what President Bush is doing. He's directing debate to the big issues that matter, not to baseless charges based on things that don't even stand up to scrutiny.
I was under the impression that after destroying John McCain in the 2000 campaign by accusing him of fathering an illegitimate black child, contracting venereal disease which he gave to his wife, and being mentally unstable and shell-shocked due to his torture in Vietnam Bush went on in the 2004 election to launch a campaign of against John Kerry so venomous that the verb "Swift Boating" was coined to be synonymous with "reckless, baseless, and false" statements.
I don't think Bush is going out of his way to accuse other people of his own crimes, I just think that at this point Bush's crimes are so broad and varied that it's difficult for him to accuse anyone of a political crime he hasn't committed.