Why is Bush so "likeable" ?

[kentuck]

Is it the way it walks or the way he talks? Is it his arrogance? Is it his compassion? Why is Mr Bush so "likeable"?

From my untrained eye, I see character traits and actions that I find despicable. Some see leadership that is decisive but I see an obstinateness and stubborness born of ignorance. He does not waver, some folks say. But I see a small mind and a dangerous consistency that cannot change direction even in the face of new realities.

I have a difficult time finding anything "likeable" about Mr Bush. I wish someone could enlighten me more on the subject?

[Wat_Tyler]

1. We can't. He appeals to Conservatives.

He best embodies their values in a way that, say, Bobby Kennedy does ours.

[molly]

2. People who can't think like to be led and

view their leader as "one of them".

[NewYorkerfromMass]

3. Because he's not Kerry

I am serious. They have made Kerry more unlikeable (to some people).
Bush is the anti-intellectual.
He is the doofus everyone loves.
I am despondent.

[rainy]

4. Rove is a wizard at creating an image, if one is not paying

close attention, Bush looks good for the 10 second sound bites and he looks great with the well placed backdrops etc....

[HughBeaumont]

18. That's why * calls him "Turd Blossom"

Meaning "something beautiful emerging from something nasty and disgusting" . . . which if you've followed the history of Kingmaker Rove, he's performed numerous times on sucko creeps like *.

[Beware the Beast Man]

5. Everybody loves an assclown!

Seriously, middle America (aka RWer Middle America) despises so-called "elitists." I think that's why KKKarl Rove and Co. try to portray Bush* as a down-home, everyday schmo, which it's painfully obvious that he's not. On the flip, they try to peg Kerry as somber, stuffy and "elite," as if conducting youself in a professional political manner these days is considered haughty. Point being, it's all an act, and a bad one at that.

[tom_paine]

6. A $4 billion dollar propaganda infrastructure unchallenegd by Free People

could make even HITLER look like a likeable man of decency and integrity.

Actually, adjusted for current dollars, that is EXACTLY what DID happen.

And what is happening now.

[Leilani]

7. Been trying to figure it out for more than 4 years.

I detested him from the first time I saw him on C-Span.

He seemed to be a swaggering, wise ass frat boy, & I am more convinced now.

What is likeable about this guy? He insults people, & is the rudest President in my life.

[liveoaktx]

8. Look at this Media Matters blurb about it- HALF don't think so

http://mediamatters.org/items/200409270009

[AlinPA]

9. Because there are a lot of stupid people in the US.

[Terran]

10. Because millions of Americans

are extremely poor judges of character. Any idiot can see that Bush is a complete asshole. Oh, and of course, the asshole demographic is going to like him too, there's that.

[rocktivity]

11. Because the media has been ordered to repeatedly tell us so.

As you say, his "resolve" is rooted in the inability to admit he's capable of being wrong. That's not likeability, that's psychosis.

:headbang:
rocknation

[kentuck]

12. BINGO !

Just this morning, I've heard the media go on and on about people "not knowing Kerry" and why these debates are important, etc... "Not knowing Kerry" somehow resembles the "exaggerator" label they stuck on Gore. It seems so harmless but it is a deadly attack on a candidate for the media to place such labels.

[napi21]

15. Media is partly right. We don't know Kerry as well as Shrub.

I would think that would be a negative for Shrub.

Bill Schneider, who most of us detest, said that in a Presidential election year where there is a sitting President, the voting is ALWAYS about whether people want to rehire the current guy, or not. Sure, the challenger has to show he's capable of doing the job, but it's still all about voting for or against the sitting President.

I think Bill is right about that. That's why RoveCo is trying so hard to make Kerry look like he can't do the job!!

[Skidmore]

13. He's likeable in the same way that

any other sociopath is--he can be just charming until you see the destruction he leaves in his wake.

[Kahuna]

14. Bush isn't likable. The sheeple have been brainwashed by the media

meme that bush is likable. In 2000, every night we were told, "people don't like Al Gore. Bush is likable." The media subliminally planted that message. And voters bought it.

If you watched the Hart focus group on CSPAN last week you would have been disgusted by how the people in that group parroted the media and rightwing memes about bush and Kerry. That was my take away from watching that group. The media/rightwing memes work. :puke:

[KurtNYC]

16. Vagueness and the Common Man

Here is a major list of the propaganda techniques employed by the Bush administration. They have said outright that he is "plain spoken" (although I think that was after he called Adam Klimer a 'major league a-hole') but this list was pretty enlightening about why they do what they do:

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a360d496e0c97.htm

This section is on intentional errors:
Errors. Scholastic pronunciation, enunciation, and delivery give the impression of being artificial. To give the impression of spontaneity, deliberately hesitate between phrases, stammer, or mispronounce words. When not overdone, the effect is one of deep sincerity. Errors in written material may be made only when they are commonly made by members of the reading audience. Generally, errors should be restricted to colloquialisms.

[wadestock]

17. Did you ever have a boss....

that was a scumbag....a phoney....who carried around a smile on his face while he stabbed people in the back?

You'd see him act chummy with people....but the real content of conversations and orders were careful signals, side comments under his breath....or meetings with only the people that kissed his ass?

People who worked for him showed a respect for him....and actually said things like "he's a nice guy"....or felt he was somehow personable? And perhaps because of all this you were confused....that perhaps he really WAS personable?

Witness corporate America....it's degradation and downfall...
Witness America seeing people's needs as less important than corporate America's needs...
Witness the Republican party going in the toilet to win over a core base of voter based on lies, deception, and delusional theories on "goodness".
Witness the new breed of power hungry neoconistic right wing ideologs that have USED whatever good America used to stand for in order to perpetrate their mindless thirst for power.

Power has been shifting decisively to the A-holes in this country....since about 1980. It has now reached an entirely new dimension.

If you look to the general reason for America going into the toilet, you might want to notice that a large part of our society has progressively grown to believe that if someone is successful...then by God....there must be something GOOD about them.

If you can explain that one to me....please do.

How about that guy down the street from you...the one with all the money....big house...etc....do you notice how people kiss up to him....give him better service than the riff raff?

In the America I grew up in....it used to be "what you are"...not "who you are".

Bye Bye Miss American Pie....

[HughBeaumont]

22. Best Post Today.

And it's even worse when people give this same treatment to someone who's portrayed to be a success . . . but actually isn't.

A guy like *, par example.

[kodi]

25. bush is the quintessential American businessman model

a liar, a huckster, and one who never accepts blame for his own mistakes. whatever he does he screws up and his subordinates have to fix and suffer the consequences.

bush represents a stream of the capitalist management class that is idolized by the masses like the Russian peasants idolized the Romanov czar, and with all the signs of the accompanying incompetence arising from inbreeding.

[shrike]

19. I've never understood that either

I mean, you can look at him and see what a mean, vindictive son of a bitch he is. Yet the media machine purrs on and on about him being likeable.

[JI7]

20. it's a media creation to make those who hate him seem irrational

that way rather than look at why people hate bush. it's about the people who hate him and they can make it seem as if there is something wrong with those who hate him.

[nikatnyte]

21. Compared to the rest of his crew, he's positively angelic

The whole BushCo gang comes across as exceedinly petty, arrogant, angry and nasty. You compare them to any group of Dems and the differences are startling. How can anyone in their right mind warm up to likes of Cheney, Rumsfeld and Ashcroft? These guys are the stuff of nightmares, for Christ's sake! You'd think that conservative politics would only get them so far. How can half of the American voting public actually get excited about these guys? Totally baffling to me.

[BlueNomad]

23. it's not just about being elitist..

..it's about being intelligent, being smart versus stupid or dumb ass doofus average intelligence.

Many years ago I saw the following bumper sticker on the back of a car (which of course also had a Bush Cheney sticker)

-"My kid beat up your honor roll kid"...

I think that says it all....Sadly the older I get the more I believe that America is basically a dangerously anti-intellectual place that glorifies slack flaccid stupidity. I think when the fascists finally take over they will kill all the A students first, the philosphers second and the artists third. Blacks, Nonchristians, Women and Gays too...

People love George Bush because I guess he reminds them of themselves. Knee slapping cornball humor, hypocritical secret heavy drinking, nitwit who doesn't read anything and likes everything parsed in little itty bitty words ...

[ItsMyParty]

24. Because the MEDIA tells you he IS

They began this slop before he even announced his candidacy for the presidency years ago. They have kept it up even as they were treated like poop on the bottom of his shoes, derided and chided by him. They keep it up today as the ONLY way to keep this inept drunk in the Oval Office. Why do you think Hitler was likable??---was it those nifty recreation camps he ran?? Was it the neat uniforms? Or was it propaganda?? People are sheep. With a media as all incompassing as we have today, they literally could take Hitler and convince these people he was the kinda guy you just wished would marry your daughter.

[flpoljunkie]

26. Because the hapless, corrupt media keeps repeating that he is.

[Meshuga]

27. The media says he is likable

and if they say it enough times it might "become true" eventually.

[Carolinian]

28. He gets people's emotions fired up.

[chrislrob]

29. Well, it doesn't help that Kerry DOESN'T seem down home at all...

We like to pretend that we're so smart that looks and style and presentation don't matter. But tell that to a sweaty, unshaven Nixon.

Kerry really does look Roman Emperorish. Plus he's rich. And I've pointed out before that a lot of people are a little suspicious of a presidential candidate that rollerblades and hangglides or whatever undignified thing Kerry is doing this week.

Sheesh. The people he needs to woo--not those of us that rollerblade and are already going to vote for him-- want to see someone that they think is conventional enough to be a strong leader and will go them commie terrorists all manner of heck, not some skate punk. Go play some baseball or golf or something, Mr. Presidential Candidate!

And, let's face it, if the only people voting in this race were those that voted for a candidate that they truly liked, Kerry would lose by roughly a billion votes.

The vast majority of us are voting AGAINST Bush.

I personally hate Bush. And I, too, truly hate his frat boy prankster style. but I don't think that Kerry's persona is very likeable, either.

Hell, I can't even say that I'm certain that Kerry has better ideas about Iraq.

But they most certainly CANNOT be worse or more disastrous or more arrogant and pig-headed.

[CornField]

30. I've heard over and over how I'd like to have a beer with him

Truth be known, if * approached me in a bar, he'd be wearing the beer. His "swagger" does nothing for me. His fake accent does even less. His eyes shift back and forth while he speaks and he carries himself with a "my shit don't stink" attitude. Men of his type are LAUGHABLE, not likeable.

[irancontra]

31. he's NOT likeable.. he's repulsive & aggrevating.

not to mention false & 2 faced.

[CBHagman]

32. He's the vindictive son of a vindictive woman.

The Bushes are famous for their grudges, snobbery, and self-protection. Read Jack Germond's "Fat Man Fed Up" for more on Barbara Pierce Bush's brand of nastiness.

I see George W. Bush as manipulative, cruel, incurious, and shallow. That's how he comes off to me, and I've heard more speeches and press availablities and debates than anyone should have to endure. One thing that creeps me out is the way he talks about physical violence, such as executions (in the U.S., he speaks of them with what I can only describe as enthusiasm and anticipation) and violence against women (he's supposedly against it, but why the eager recitation of grim details?).

That said, I understand that in person he can charm people. Even Molly Ivins, who's seen more wretches and racists and fools than most of us, has found him charming. But she is not duped.

[liberal N proud]

33. They have not asked me because I sure don't see anything

likable about the buffoon.

[ScreamingMeemie]

34. He is? I don't know many people who describe him as likeable.

Crazy fundamentalist Christian women may fantasize about having the next coming of the Christ with him...but even that doesn't make him likeable. :hi:

[prayin4rain]

35. I think he reminds the average American of themselves...

I think that is why so many people loved to see Clinton fall, because Clinton was smarter than them and they knew it. They took such joy when "Smarty" Clinton made a mistake. On the other hand they identify with awshucks Georgie and they are hoping the best for him. I guess if this little moron can do well, they think there is hope for all the little morons of this nation.