The Passion of the Bush on dvd Tues (or Bush is scary)

[stray cat]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/03/arts/03rich.html?pagewanted=1&th&oref=login

A dvd to be released Tues as Pro-Bush may portray a presidential crusader to be feared. Won't it be great if it backfires.

Frank Rich, New York Times review of the Passion of the Bush.


Of the many cultural grenades being tossed, the one must-see is "George W. Bush: Faith in the White House," a DVD that is being specifically marketed in "head to head" partisan opposition to "Fahrenheit 9/11."
<snip>
More than any other campaign artifact, it clarifies the hard-knuckles rationale of the president's vote-for-me-or-face-Armageddon re-election message. It transforms the president that the Democrats deride as a "fortunate son" of privilege into a prodigal son with the "moral clarity of an old-fashioned biblical prophet." Its Bush is not merely a sincere man of faith but God's essential and irreplaceable warrior on Earth.
<snip>

Far more startling is the inability of a president or his acolytes to acknowledge any boundary that might separate Mr. Bush's flawed actions battling "against the forces of evil" from the righteous dictates of God. What that level of hubris might bring in a second term is left to the imagination, and "Faith in the White House" gives the imagination room to run riot about what a 21st-century crusade might look like in the flesh. A documentary conceived as a rebuke to "Fahrenheit 9/11" is nothing if not its unintentional and considerably more nightmarish sequel.

[Nimrod]

1. This sort of thing

Is just to make sales from people who are already voting *, I honestly don't believe this sort of "message" will have any effect on the outcome at all. So they can play the Right-Hand-of-God card all they want, I'm totally cool with that. The brainless bible-bots are already a lost cause, and if they want to dump their money on drek like this it's their business.

BTW: I also LOVE letters to the editor that start with "And on the eighth day GOD maketh Dubya..." I think that sort of rhetoric helps us a great deal and doesn't hurt at all.

[highplainsdem]

2. I really hope it backfires

but what that review says about how the filmmakers "plan to distribute 300,000 copies to America's churches" suggests this is meant more as further brainwashing of the gullible...and right now the Bush campaign has to be hoping that this near-deification of Bush will overwhelm any doubts the faithful might have started to experience after seeing their sainted leader babbling like an idiot during the debate. (Certainly all of Dubya's whining about "hard work" doesn't mesh with the "old-fashioned biblical prophet" image, let alone the image of an "essential and irreplaceable warrior.") Since the Bushies apparently plan this as further preaching to the choir, though, it might be useful for Dems to send LTTEs calling attention to some of the most extreme statements there (like the "God wants me to be president" claim attributed to Bush by Southern Baptist minister Richard Land...though it's not entirely clear from the review whether that statement's in the documentary or in something else Frank Rich has seen or read), and pointing out how offensive (and scary) this is.

[struggle4progress]

3. A really great review!

... Its Bush is not merely a sincere man of faith but God's essential and irreplaceable warrior on Earth. The stations of his cross are burnished into cinematic fable: the misspent youth, the hard drinking (a thirst that came from "a throat full of Texas dust"), the fateful 40th-birthday hangover in Colorado Springs, the walk on the beach with Billy Graham ...

... "Will George W. Bush be allowed to finish the battle against the forces of evil that threaten our very existence?" Such is the portentous question posed at the film's conclusion by its narrator, the religious broadcaster Janet Parshall, beloved by some for her ecumenical generosity in inviting Jews for Jesus onto her radio show during the High Holidays. Anyone who stands in the way of Mr. Bush completing his godly battle, of course, is a heretic. Facts on the ground in Iraq don't matter. Rational arguments mustered in presidential debates don't matter. Logic of any kind is a nonstarter ...

... Past presidents have rarely, if ever, claimed such godlike infallibility ... After all, if you believe "God wants me to be president" - a quote attributed to Mr. Bush by the Rev. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention - it's a given that you are incapable of making mistakes. Those who say you have are by definition committing blasphemy ...

:D :P :D

[ThoughtCriminal]

4. It's not designed to persuade anyone but true believers

Getting them to vote is more important than winning over fence sitters. But yes, if it gets the wrong kind of publicity that can backfire too and motivate everyone else to get a delusional false prophet out of office.

[Hello_Kitty]

5. Not all Christians are buying this b.s.

We have quite a few volunteers in our precinct for the Kerry campaign who describe themselves as evangelical Christians. They are disgusted with the way the Shrub administration has twisted Scripture to serve its agenda. They often use the phrase 'wolf in sheep's clothing' to describe him. And they are taking the message to their churches. I don't know how much good it will do in the end but it's an encouraging sign.

[jasongleed]

6. Terrifying

How the hell did it come to this??? What a disaster.

[realFedUp]

7. This sure isn't getting much reaction from DUers...

wonder how much the White House will push
this through media...

If George doesn't go to church, he doesn't tithe.