Today while I was working in my garden, I was listening to our local NPR, which has some excellent talk shows from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. Today's guest was Jay Nordlinger, National Review editor. Nordlinger has compiled a book of *'s speeches (I know, don't laugh) and was ostensibly on the program to plug it. But those of us who watch these bottom feeders know there's always another agenda and the agenda with this book is to recast bush's image as an inarticulate dolt to a new one--rough but a straight shooter. Always know where he stands and what he thinks. In fact--don't laugh--their model is Demosthenes. More on that later.
My thinking is that they know bush is going down in flames and are trying desperately to shore up his strong points and "candid speech" has been one.
We all know their huge budget for brainwashing allows them to strategize and put out nonsellers like this. It's a strategy to shape public opinion via interviews such as the one I heard today. The plan, based on this book of speeches, is to cast bush as Demosthenes, who, if you recall:
"...was a youth in ancient Athens, no one could have believed that he would become the greatest of the Greek orators. He had a speech impediment, and people jeered at his stammering when he addressed his first large public assembly." (Encyclopedia Brittanica)
Demosthenes, however, overcomes his speaking defect and goes on to be a fairly good orator.
Anyway, somewhere along the line, the talking points plan today went awry because Nordlinger started dwelling on hatred for bush. At first I thought it was going to be just a comment or two but as I listened to the show, he kept referring back to how a certain segment of the population will never think anything of bush, how nothing he will do will ever make such people like him. He used the example of bush's Liberian speech, which had appeal to the more liberal factions. He said there was little comment or positive feedback on this speech from the more liberal quarters. He chalked this up to blanket hatred of bush.
There were many incidents like this during the show. I got the feeling, from the tone of Nordlinger's voice, that he was grappling with the fact that people really do hate this guy.
In reflecting on the show later, I believe that the repukes are just beginning to figure out how much hatred this idiot has engendered. I think discussing bush hatred was
not part of Nordlinger's agenda. He was so taken aback by it, however, that he devoted an inordinate number of comments to it. If you want to hear the segment, here's the URL:
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/episodes/08052003Another interesting part of the show was when the host observed that he deliberately did not announce the listener call-in number. Regardless, there were so many people hot under the collar that Nordlinger was trying to cast bush as a straight shooter and a simple, straightforward guy, that the phones were all jammed up, just with people who either knew the number or went to the trouble to get it. The first caller who got through said she didn't want a simple guy as president! She said she wanted someone who knew how to act like a president and didn't alienate the world!
Cher