Posted on 08/31/2004 5:44:37 PM PDT by L.N. Smithee
Did you hear the news? After saying over and over and over again that America will win the war on terror, President Bush admitted that we probably can’t! Oh my God!
That’s the way that you might have reacted if you hadn’t heard or seen the Bush interview by Today co-host Matt Lauer conducted on the Bush-Cheney campaign bus Monday morning. If you have heard the President speak since the campaign began with unshakeable resolve (or, if you don’t like him, mule-headedness) about the ability of America to be victorious over those who would bring Middle Eastern terrorism to the Continental United States, you probably weren’t fazed, much less shocked, at what he said.
Here’s the transcript from the MSNBC site:
Lauer: You said to me a second ago, one of the things you'll lay out in your vision for the next four years is how to go about winning the war on terror. That phrase strikes me a little bit. Do you really think we can win this war on terror in the next four years?President Bush: I have never said we can win it in four years…
Lauer: So I’m just saying can we win it? Do you see that?
President Bush: I don't think you can win it. But I think you can create conditions so that those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world - let's put it that way. I have a two pronged strategy. On the one hand is to find them before they hurt us, and that's necessary. I’m telling you it's necessary. The country must never yield, must never show weakness [and] must continue to lead. To find al-Qaida affiliates who are hiding around the world and harm us and bring ‘em to justice - we're doing a good job of it. I mean we are dismantling the al-Qaidas we knew it. The long-term strategy is to spread freedom and liberty, and that's really kind of an interesting debate. You know there's some who say well, You know certain people can't self govern and accept, you know, a former democracy. I just strongly disagree with that. I believe that democracy can take hold in parts of the world that are now non-democratic and I think it's necessary in order to defeat the ideologies of hate. History has shown that it can work, that spreading liberty does work. After all, Japan is our close ally and my dad fought against the Japanese. Prime Minister Koizumi, is one of the closest collaborators I have in working to make the world a more peaceful place.
MSNBC.com headlined the Lauer interview transcript thusly: “Bush: 'You cannot show weakness in this world'”. Obviously his language didn’t scream out at NBC as a stunning policy change. But within hours, John Edwards (John Kerry couldn’t be taken away from his windsurfing for a comment, apparently) was saying that the President had admitted that he didn’t think the War on Terror could be won, but that he and Kerry knew that it could. This was a very clever spin job by the Kerry Krew, who doubtless welcomed a talking point that didn't put Kerry's fitness for the job in focus.
This tempest in a teacup all has to do with emphasis. When seeing that quote, it looks to the casual and/or uninformed reader as if Bush said, "I don't think you can win it," and that is the emphasis used when Little John made the media rounds yesterday. The fact is, in context, what Bush actually said was "I don't think you can win 'it,'" meaning that the War on Terror is not like a War on the Nazis or a War on Japan or a War on, say, Grenada. Defeating the forces of a particular country does not end the war because this enemy is mercurial and stealthy.
Indeed, the President, in an interview this morning on the Rush Limbaugh Program, clarified his statement, saying that “I should have made my point more clear about what I meant. What I meant was that this is not a conventional war. It is a different kind of war…in a conventional war there would be a peace treaty or there would be a moment where somebody would sit on the side and say we quit. That's not the kind of war we're in, and that's what I was saying.”
Later in that interview, Bush acknowledged that the Edwards spin was in large measure his own fault: “I probably needed to be a little more articulate.”
If Bush hadn’t hammered home that America can and will be victorious against worldwide terrorism in his every other breath, this could have done some real damage to his campaign. I can think of another campaign for which similar lack of forethought about misinterpreted emphasis turned out to be near-fatal.
If you are in your thirties, you may remember a television commercial for Vicks Formula 44 cough syrup. The strategy behind the commercial was that Vicks Formula 44 was recommended widely by doctors, so you could trust the product, and not just choose a product on your intuition, in effect, “playing doctor” at home. The agency signed up soap actor Peter Bergman, and he recited the now-infamous first line:
Bergman went on to say that “some people like to play doctor at home,” continuing on about how Vicks was, as mentioned previously, recommended by doctors. The problem is that most people didn’t hear that part, because they were laughing at the first line! Why? Because Bergman seemed to be saying that because he played a doctor on TV, he spoke with some authority about medicine!
“I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV.”
This misperception would have been remedied by a simple change in that first line: Instead of “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV,” Bergman should have been told to say, “I play a doctor on TV, but I’m not a doctor.” Then, the table would have been set for points to be made about errors made by other non-doctors.
I have written before that George W. Bush is the most inarticulate President in the history of recorded sound. It amazes me that a man who doesn’t sound like he could be certified by Toastmasters is the President of the United States. After the magic moment when Katherine Harris certified the Florida results at last, and Gore gave his long-awaited concession speech, Bush gave his acceptance speech from the Texas statehouse. It then dawned on me: "I'm going to have to listen to this guy for four years!" He has been getting better, in baby steps. He just needs to be more careful about his words, because the Kerry Krew is desperate for something to talk about besides the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth.
However, his speech problems are a minor irritation when the times are such as they are. Like the lyrics of War's #1 song “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” says, “Sometimes I don’t…speak…right…But still I know what I’m talkin’ about.”
George W Bush is a great leader with clear vision and strength
i dont care if he sounds like a orangutan speaking chinese.
I'm enough of a realist to know that you can never win a war against terrorism. There will always be terrorism and terrorists, just as there will always be crime and criminals. You can, however, create an environment in which the situation is under control.
I have read that sentence maybe a dozen times now, and I can't imagine what that sounds like.
This ping's for you, DUde.
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