[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: Bush and Reality

[swiggard at comcast.net]

The article below from NYTimes.com 
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The crux of the matter, IMHO...
Peace,
Bill

swiggard at comcast.net


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Bush and Reality

October 4, 2004
 By BOB HERBERT 



 

For 90 minutes, at least, democracy seemed to be working.
The two men in dark suits took their places at the
lecterns. The analysts, the handlers, the spinmeisters and
the hangers-on had been cleared out of the way. With no
commercial interruptions, more than 60 million Americans
got a rare, unedited, close-up look at the candidates in
one of the most important presidential elections in the
nation's history. 

John Kerry got the better of President Bush in last
Thursday's debate in Coral Gables, Fla. The president
seemed listless, defensive and not particularly well
prepared. His facial expressions and body language at times
were odd. Some of his strongest supporters were dismayed by
his performance, and polls are showing they had reason to
be concerned. 

There undoubtedly were many reasons for Mr. Bush's
lackluster effort. But I think there was one factor, above
all, that undermined the president in last week's debate,
and will continue to plague him throughout the campaign.
And that was his problematic relationship with reality. 

Mr. Bush is a man who will frequently tell you - and may
even believe - that up is down, or square is round, when
logic and all the available evidence say otherwise. During
the debate, this was most clearly displayed when, in
response to a question about the war in Iraq, Mr. Bush told
the moderator, Jim Lehrer, "The enemy attacked us, Jim, and
I have a solemn duty to protect the American people, to do
everything I can to protect us." 

Moments later Senator Kerry clarified, for the audience and
the president, just who had attacked the United States.
"Saddam Hussein didn't attack us," said Mr. Kerry. "Osama
bin Laden attacked us. Al Qaeda attacked us." 

Given a chance to respond, Mr. Bush flashed an
unappreciative look at Senator Kerry and said, "Of course I
know Osama bin Laden attacked us - I know that." 

With no weapons of mass destruction to exhibit, and no link
between Saddam and Al Qaeda, Mr. Bush has nevertheless
tried to portray the war in Iraq as not only the right
thing to do but as largely successful. The increasing
violence and chaos suggest otherwise. Even as the
presidential debate was being conducted, details were
coming in about car bombings earlier in the day in Baghdad
that killed dozens of Iraqis, including at least 34
children. 

The children were not in school because the turmoil had
prevented the opening of schools. 

The political problem for Mr. Bush is that while he is
offering a rosy picture of events in Iraq - perhaps because
he believes it, or because he wants to bolster American
morale - voters are increasingly seeing the bitter, tragic
reality of those events. A president can stay out of step
with reality only so long. Eventually there's a political
price to pay. Lyndon Johnson's deceit with regard to
Vietnam, for example, has never been forgiven. 

The president likes to tell us that "freedom is winning" in
Iraq, that democracy is on the march. But Americans are
coming to realize that Iraq is, in fact, a country in
agony, beset by bombings, firefights, kidnappings,
beheadings and myriad other forms of mayhem. The president
may think that freedom is winning, but television viewers
in the U.S. could see images over the weekend of distraught
Iraqis pulling the bodies of small children from smoking
rubble - a tragic but perfect metaphor for a policy in
ruins. 

Mr. Bush got his big bounce in the public opinion polls
from the Swift boat nonsense and the mocking, nonstop
criticism of Senator Kerry at the Republican National
Convention. Those were distractions from the real world.
But reality cannot be kept at bay indefinitely. Readers of
The Washington Post got a disturbing dose of it yesterday
from a front-page article about the strain being put on the
overloaded systems of veterans' disability benefits and
health care by the thousands of American troops returning
from Iraq and Afghanistan with physical injuries and mental
health problems. 

The article noted that "President Bush's budget for 2005
calls for cutting the Department of Veterans Affairs staff
that handles benefits claims." 

A staff sergeant who was paralyzed in a mortar attack near
Baghdad was quoted as saying: "I love the military; that
was my life. But I don't believe they're taking care of me
now." 

The real world is President Bush's Achilles' heel. He can't
keep his distance from it forever. 

E-mail: bobherb at nytimes.com


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/04/opinion/04herbert.html?ex=1097888660&ei=1&en=1dbb15b337b911d0


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