Krugman: The Arabian Candidate --- Allegory to Bush* and Manchurian

[LittleApple81]

candidate!
Excellent...

In the original version of "The Manchurian Candidate," Senator John Iselin, whom Chinese agents are plotting to put in the White House, is a right-wing demagogue modeled on Senator Joseph McCarthy. As Roger Ebert wrote, the plan is to "use anticommunist hysteria as a cover for a communist takeover."

snip

So let's imagine an update - not the remake with Denzel Washington, which I haven't seen, but my own version. This time the enemies would be Islamic fanatics, who install as their puppet president a demagogue who poses as the nation's defender against terrorist evildoers.

snip..

O.K., end of conceit. President Bush isn't actually an Al Qaeda mole, with Dick Cheney his controller. Mr. Bush's "war on terror" has, however, played with eerie perfection into Osama bin Laden's hands - while Mr. Bush's supporters, impressed by his tough talk, see him as America's champion against the evildoers.

Last week, Republican officials in Kentucky applauded bumper stickers distributed at G.O.P. offices that read, "Kerry is bin Laden's man/Bush is mine." Administration officials haven't gone that far, but when Tom Ridge offered a specifics-free warning about a terrorist attack timed to "disrupt our democratic process," many people thought he was implying that Al Qaeda wants George Bush to lose. In reality, all infidels probably look alike to the terrorists, but if they do have a preference, nothing in Mr. Bush's record would make them unhappy at the prospect of four more years.

worth reading the whole thing! link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/20/opinion/20krug.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=

[Leilani]

1. Krugman writes another terrific column!!!

He is wonderful; I sent him a fan letter!

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

2. Bush is The ManChimpian Candidate

Many people on DU have noted how the current ManChimp in office has changed over the last few years. In Fahrenheit 911, we see a younger George Bush with the ability to speak, if not with great eloguence, at least with rapid speech, without constantly changing subject and verb mid-sentence, without staring into space for several minutes as though in a drug-induced stupor, and without interrupting himself with a string of mmmmmms, ahhhhhhs, or unhhhhhs. The current pResident ManChimp in the White House on occasion seems to be under the influence of powerful psychotropic drugs or mind-control. Maybe it's just the effect of prolonged drug and alcohol abuse.

But could George Bush actually be THE MANCHIMPIAN CANDIDATE?

[scottxyz]

3. The most CHILLLING article I've ever read by Krugman

This plus Craig Unger's book "House of Bush / House of Saud" could really make you start thinking...

Actually the main feeling I got while watching F9/11 was this eerie idea that somehow Bush was a puppet for Saudi Arabia. Hell, they've paid him almost 2 billion dollars over the years, and his such a kiss-ass, it really seems like he's taking orders from them.

[LittleApple81]

4. Whatever, Krugman is too forthright for this administration. Hersh,

Krugman, and a few others with impeccable credentials must watch their backs. See what they are doing to Wilson!

[Rose Siding]

5. That's his most powerful ever.

He NAILED it.