FRANK RICH | Why Did James Baker Turn Bush Into Nixon?

FRANK RICH
Why Did James Baker Turn Bush Into Nixon?



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It was Mr. Baker's job to negotiate the 32-page debate agreement with Vernon Jordan, representing the Kerry camp, and by all accounts, the Bush campaign got almost everything it wanted. Yet as we now know, every Bush stipulation backfired, from the identically sized podiums that made the 5-foot-11 president look as if he needed a booster stool, to the flashing "Time's up!" lights that emphasized Mr. Kerry's uncharacteristic brevity and Mr. Bush's need to run out the clock by repeating stock phrases ad infinitum and ad absurdum.

The most revealing Baker error, though, was to insist that the first debate be about the president's purported strong suit, foreign affairs, instead of domestic policy. Did no one anticipate the likelihood that Iraq might once again explode that day, as it has on so many recent others? Insurgent attacks have gone from a daily average of 6 in May 2003 to as high as 87 in August. And so, as Adam Nagourney of The Times reported, "In the hours leading up to the debate, television images of aides to Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry were mixed with images of corpses and bloody children from Baghdad," on a day when some 35 Iraqi children were slaughtered by car bombs. With this montage grinding away in the media mix, Mr. Kerry probably could have gotten away with even more inconsistent positions about the war than he did that night.

Mr. Baker isn't responsible for the other split-screen visuals that undid Mr. Bush on Sept. 30: the reaction shots during the debate itself. They were forbidden by the 32-page agreement. But earlier that week, the networks, including Fox News, publicly announced they would violate that rule. The Bush campaign has since said that the president knew this was coming, but if so, that makes his lack of self-discipline seem all the more self-destructive, or perhaps out of touch. He couldn't have provided a better out-take promo for the DVD release of "Fahrenheit 9/11" had Michael Moore been directing it himself.

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That's a shocking development because until recently, that manipulation had been meticulous and then some. The administration has been brilliant at concocting camera-ready video narratives that flatter if not outright fictionalize its actions: "Saving Jessica Lynch," "Shock and Awe," the toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue (a sparsely populated, unspontaneous event, when seen in the documentary "Control Room"), "Mission Accomplished." Mr. Bush has been posed by his imagineers to appear to be the fifth head on Mount Rushmore; he has kept the coffins of the American war dead off-screen; he has been seen in shirtsleeves at faux-folksy Town Hall meetings that, until his second debate with Mr. Kerry, were so firmly policed in content and attendees that they would make a Skull and Bones soiree look like a paragon of democracy in action. Time reported last spring that even the Department of Homeland Security was told to take a break from its appointed tasks to round up one terrorism-fighting photo op a month for the president.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/10/arts/10rich.html?8hpib

"Department of Homeland Security was told to take a break from its appointed tasks to round up one terrorism-fighting photo op a month for the president."

I can hardly believe this one. In another time, I would have called this bullshit, but in 2004 I know better.

We old people do not always know how the young people think and time moves on. The old tricks of Nixon must be like three day old fish by now. I did read that Baker has an office in the WH and that had to be from a years ago. I recall when they took him from SoS to help Bush 1 and he could not do it that time either.

BushCo are the KKKeystone KKKops of fascism.

..or anyone else, for that matter. I sort of believe that Bush's behavior has evolved into that of a cult leader. He appears to have many of the personality traits of one.

http://www.kashiashram.com/Manipulator.htm


"Let us look for a moment at how some of this manifests in the cult leader. Cult leaders have an outstanding ability to charm and win over followers. They beguile and seduce. They enter a room and garner all the attention. They command the utmost respect and obedience. These are "individuals whose narcissism is so extreme and grandiose that they exist in a kind of splendid isolation in which the creation of the grandiose self takes precedence over legal, moral or interpersonal commitments."(l8) Paranoia may be evident in simple or elaborate delusions of persecution. Highly suspicious, they may feel conspired against, spied upon or cheated, or maligned by a person, group, or governmental agency. Any real or suspected unfavorable reaction may be interpreted as a deliberate attack upon them or the group. (Considering the criminal nature of some groups and the antisocial behavior of others, some of these fears may have more of a basis in reality than delusion!)

Harder to evaluate, of course, is whether these leaders' belief in their magical powers, omnipotence, and connection to God (or whatever higher power or belief system they are espousing) is delusional or simply part of the con. Megalomania--the belief that one is able or entitled to rule the world--is equally hard to evaluate without psychological testing of the individual, although numerous cult leaders state quite readily that their goal is to rule the world. In any case, beneath the surface gloss of intelligence, charm, and professed humility seethes an inner world of rage, depression, and fear."

at the very least, he chose the wrong shade of (con)fuschia...

I remember several times as Georgie stalked the stage in St. Louis that he looked overeager, leaning forward as if to get his deathless pronouncements to his luckless listeners all the quicker. Then there was a side or rear shot of Bush, and he had the Nixon hunchback look working for him so well that for a second I thought the dead, damned spirit of the Trickster had slipped from the Stygian realm to inhabit the empty suit as it flapped and fluttered across the proscenium.

Shortly afterward, Bush quick-stepped back to his seat and the moment was gone. Only a whiff of cheap scotch remained of the apparition.

..."for a second I thought the dead, damned spirit of the Trickster had slipped from the Stygian realm to inhabit the empty suit as it flapped and fluttered across the proscenium.

Shortly afterward, Bush quick-stepped back to his seat and the moment was gone. Only a whiff of cheap scotch remained of the apparition."

Beautiful!

his piece last week on "The Passion of the Bush" was also brilliant!

But that bit of prose was genuinely gratuitous.

Uh, thanks Frank.

"...Mr. Kerry probably could have gotten away with even more inconsistent positions about the war than he did that night."

"It was Mr. Baker's job to negotiate the 32-page debate agreement with Vernon Jordan, representing the Kerry camp, and by all accounts, the Bush campaign got almost everything it wanted."

Vernon, you old crazy like a fox sly operative......

Kerry team was confident they'd whup the chimp with whatever 'rules' he wanted... perfect. they can't complain about anything but the miserable failure's miserable failure...