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Am I mistaken, but in May of 2004 weren't we told that bush was going to give a series of speeches (six, was it) to explain the war and plans to the public (eg "get the public behind it again") - he gave one speech... was asked about whether or not he had made any mistakes - made silly responses (no mistakes that I can think of... gee if I had had that question in advance, with time to think about it....)
And a month ago it was proclaimed by the WH and repeated endlessly by rwers that he was going to give a series of speeches (again - to resell the war to the public) and gave exactly one... this time followed by reporting that not only was their NO wild response by the military crowd, but that the only applause was tepid, and was spurred by a WH staffer... and that the speech was supposed to last about 15 minutes longer than it did, because they had timed it with applause wait time?
Is my memory foggy? Where were the rest of the speeches? And why am I not reading/hearing about a) the lack of the rest of the speeches this year; b) the lack of the speeches last year; c) the pattern... and d) (most importantly) what the calling off of the speeches suggest... He can't just "sell it" and public opinion drops when he tries.
Why is this significant? Because after 9/11 these folks thought they could "sell" anything to the public. That they could propagandize us into anything regardless of whether or not it was really popular with the public. That using Madison Avenue marketing pitches (read the April 2002 article by Josh Green on "The Other War Room" in the Washington Monthly - can still google it and get it, to see how this is done) was no longer working.
Yes the repubs are clearly still able to steamroll egregious legislation through congress. I am in no way saying WooHoo "A sign, a sign, we are winning." I am saying, however, that the dynamics have shifted. They know it. Bush - as a source of bullypulpit momentum - is more than lame - I think per the bullypulpit he is effectively neutered.
But perhaps my memory is incorrect and each time there was only to be One Big Speech (flop!)
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