Newsweek: Bush's claim to candor is a casualty of the Iraq war

[ProSense]

Murky Times
After 9/11, Bush won public trust by coming across as a straight shooter. But the chief casualty of the Iraq war may be his claims to candor.

WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Howard Fineman
Newsweek
Updated: 1:28 p.m. ET Dec. 7, 2005


Dec. 7, 2005 - In the fall of 1999, I was in Austin, Texas, in the garden of the governor’s mansion, asking George W. Bush to name the world leaders in history he most admired. His answers—Winston Churchill and Harry Truman—struck me then as unremarkable boilerplate. Boy, was I wrong.

As controversy rages over the war in Iraq, as his poll numbers shrink to new lows, as American leadership of the West comes under fire in ways we haven’t seen in a generation, you have to wonder: who does Bush think he is?

Well, if he is to be taken at his word—the word he spoke to me six years ago when he was governor of Texas—he thinks of himself as a reviled, underestimated figure whose struggle against totalitarianism will be vindicated by history.


snip...

Rove’s plan is to divide the Democrats even if his Boss can’t unify the country. The White House will not attack Rep. Jack Murtha, the antiwar war hero. Rather, Bush & Co., will focus their fire on Howard Dean, John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi—even as the president and vice president embrace the “good Democrat” Joe Lieberman.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10365904/site/newsweek/from/RSS/

[blm]

1. The MEDIA told people he was a straightshooter for 6 years now. They LIED

for him every step of the way because almost all of them KNEW Bush was lying his way through life for his entire adult life.

[ProSense]

3. My feeling is

Bush lost his claim to candor somewhere between birth and 18, before he was released by Mummy and Duddy Bush to spread his lack of candor around the world.

[Bonhomme Richard]

2. Confusing candor with speaking like an idiot.

There is a difference.

[adigal]

4. What's bothersome about this is that Dems are

playing right into Rove's hands, like the one who stingingly criticized Dean for his remarks on the war:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/06/AR2005120601707.html

"The critics said that comment could reinforce popular perceptions that the party is weak on military matters and divert attention from the president's growing political problems on the war and other issues. "Dean's take on Iraq makes even less sense than the scream in Iowa: Both are uninformed and unhelpful," said Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Ga.), recalling Dean's famous election-night roar after stumbling in Iowa during his 2004 presidential bid."

So if they tear each other to pieces over a war that is universally unpopular with the American people, what hope do we have of winning anything back in 2006???