Blumenthal: The Hollow World of George Bush

[kskiska]

The power of positive thinking is the president's shield from reality

The news is grim, but the president is "optimistic". The intelligence is sobering, but he tosses aside "pessimistic predictions". His opponent says he has "no credibility", but the president replies that it is his rival who is "twisting in the wind". The UN secretary general speaks of the "rule of law", but he talks before a mute general assembly of "a new definition of security". Between the rhetoric and the reality lies the campaign.

(snip)

George Bush's vision of the liberation of Iraq has melted before harsh facts. But reality cannot be allowed to obscure the image. The liberation is "succeeding", he insists, and only pessimists cannot see it.

In July, the CIA delivered to the president a new national intelligence estimate that detailed three gloomy scenarios for Iraq's future, ranging up to civil war. Perhaps it was his reading of the estimate that prompted Bush to remark in August that the war on terrorism could not be won, a judgment he swiftly reversed. And at the UN, Bush held a press conference where he rebuffed the latest intelligence.

Bush explained that, for him, intelligence is not to inform decision-making, but to be used or rejected to advance an ideological and political agenda. His dismissal is an affirmation of the politicisation and corruption of intelligence that rationalised the war.

more…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/comment/story/0,14259,1310773,00.html

[Southsideirish]

1. He's our ..."bubble boy" !

[dweller]

2. i submit

that the *moron does not have the slightest inkling of the the true power of positive thinking, nor positive imagery.

thus he has no power of positive thinking.
thus no shields

he's a goner. . .toast . . .kaput.

and i will not dwell on that.
dp

[freesqueeze]

3. Nice Piece

I always thought that optimism is when you keep your chin up when things aren't going your way. Not just completely rejecting the news that things aren't going your way.

The optimist is the guy who falls in the dung pile and thrashes around saying there must be a horse in there somewhere. Put Mr. Bush in this fable and he won't even admit that the dung pile exists.

[PATRICK]

4. If only people get to the point

where they begin to hear Bush as if he were a mafioso or swindler facing criminal charges and putting on an outrageously bold and innocent face. Because that is exactly what he is doing.

Kerry can call this bluff. The American people can hold this snake to account.

[Beetwasher]

5. Why The Hell Is Blumenthal Not Writing for a US Publication?

Rhetorical question...I know the answer...The US media is afraid of him, he's too damn good, to damn honest and a real journalist...