David Frum in National Review criticizes Bush

[ginnyinWI]

Interesting.

Again, supporters of the war can do our bit to try to change minds. But the biggest megaphone in the country belongs to President Bush - and much depends on whether he uses it well or badly.

He is using it very badly indeed.

Let me mention just one single but maybe decisive problem. Again and again during the Bush presidency - and yesterday most recently - the president will agree to give what is advertised in advance as a major speech. An important venue will be chosen. A crowd of thousands will be gathered. The networks will all be invited. And after these elaborate preparations, the president says ... nothing that he has not said a hundred times before.

If a president continues to do that, he is himself teaching the public and the media to ignore him - especially when the words seem (as his speech yesterday to the VFW seemed) utterly to ignore the past three months of real-world events.

more good stuff: http://frum.nationalreview.com/archives/08232005.asp#073900

[Jacobin]

1. Neo-cons want a new cheerleader?

Who would they have in mind?

[Nikki Stone 1]

6. Britney? It would be the same level of brain power

:)

[Jacobin]

10. Don't insult Brittany!!

I have a feeling she is much more intelligent that Commander Cuckoo Bannanas.

:hi:

[ironman202]

13. that's not her brain that you're feeling...

[Jacobin]

23. touche'

She's not my type, but hey.....what's that saying about even allowing the consumption of crackers in bed?

:-)

[burythehatchet]

20. yeah. preznit bush will be pushed overboard in a very humiliating manner.

[Canuckistanian]

2. Ka-ching, ka-ching.....

The penny drops. Suddenly, the faint sound of gears whirring. A slight movement, then another.

The eyelids start to rise....

[Inland]

3. "nothing he hasn't said a hundred times before." As Frank Rich says

the american people can't stand a boring, repetitive narrator.

Bush's story is, "We went into Iraq, and we aren't going to leave today, THE END!" What is there to applaud for?

[Cha]

7. And I'm sure these national review types

were scouring the speech with a fine tooth comb looking for ANYTHING DIFFERENT!!

[Mr Rabble]

15. Exactly. What a joke.

Frum is just rallying support for the war by "keeping it real". They need to say something to keep the base believing that they are sane.

Watch his next column to be rabidly pro *.

[MissWaverly]

27. how do we get him voted off the island

what was the skill test/the challenge???? The only thing is that
it cannot involve brush clearing.

[Burried News]

4. So Frum will you be hooking up with the DLC for another

Demosthenes on the Potomac.
We've been listening to the same shit for 5 years and guys like you called the speeches home runs.
Even the Lord Haw Haws can't stand him anymore.

[Cha]

8. like frum and from?

The frum and from show?

[Cha]

5. rove must be stuck in

4th gear..is david frum saying that bush is like the little boy who cried wolf? Nobody will listen to him if he EVER SAYS ANY THING OF IMPORT?

[Fridays Child]

9. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over...

...and expecting different results. ~ Ben Franklin

[Burried News]

11. You have to go to the letters and emails at the end of his rant.

[Burried News]

12. Nominated. Three more years Frum - suck it up.

[Larkspur]

14. Lieberman's poll ratings in CT are high, why doens't Frum encourage Holy

Joe to knock down Cindy Sheehan and the anti-Iraq war movement?

Lieberman can lecture us on how video game violence is more dangerous than real violence in war. :sarcasm:

[Cha]

18. Hard to believe that

ol' holy(not)joe's ratings are high in CT when this Invasion turned out to be the Criminal disaster we predicted it would be.

It was only obvious to anyone who had a moral center.

[Larkspur]

19. Sadly, it's true according to the public polls

But I don't know too many including those in my Dem Town Committee who actually like Lieberman.

[Spazito]

16. David Frum was, is and always will be a third rate shill

for the right-wing. Watch for his next screed and he will be praising bush to the hilt for taking his advice because bush is still saying nothing but saying it differently.

[Captain Hilts]

28. He's a wealthy Canadian who didn't experience Vietnam on any level. nt

[Spazito]

30. Sadly, you are correct, he is Canadian but in name only

His mother was a well-respected journalist, it is too bad he went in the opposite direction. His claim to fame, his only one, is the penning of 'Axis of Evil' in that infamous bush speech. He worked in the White House until his wife started bragging about his involvement, etc, then he was fired or 'encouraged to move on', lol.

[Supersedeas]

17. A speech that utterly ignores the past three months real world events!!

Even the RW thinks he is delusional!!!

[Jacobin]

24. But you forget:

Neo-cons 'make their own reality' because they are so strong.

It is fun to watch when their made up reality collides with real reality.

[brentspeak]

21. Only because he feels it's safe now to criticize Bush

Frum sees Bush's popularity polls, Chuck Hagel's statements -- and figures it would do himself good to be on record as being critical of Bush's war-handling.

If the war was going exactly as it is now, but Bush's poll numbers were through the roof? Frum would be penning a gushing puff-piece on Bush.

[bvar22]

22. Its always fun to watch the Republican's "eat their own",

but I'm worried. The Republicans may try to save the "Conservative Philosophy" by blaming George bush* for ALL the ills of the Party. They can then go into '06 and '08 saying:
"if it wasn't for bush* (who is lame duck anyway) everything would be peachy. Republicans are GOOD, bush* is bad. Dump bush*, but keep the republicans".


We need to take some of the focus OFF bush*, and drive a STAKE through the Black Heart of Conservatism"!



The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those who advance the agenda of THE RICH (Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR.

[stevedeshazer]

25. You don't need a weatherman...

...to know which way the wind blows.

http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/subterranean.html

[phatkatt]

26. "A crowd of thousands will be gathered."

Implies "carefully selected".

[underpants]

29. "Axis of Evil" writer fired after wife's email--no one take credit over W

Reach his voice mail and you learn not only that he's out of the office, but that he's on a book tour. He is promoting The Right Man, which according to DavidFrum.com, "is the first inside account of a historic year in the Bush White House, written by the presidential speechwriter credited with the phrase 'axis of evil.'" Frum's coinage of "axis of evil" was revealed in a tacky episode last March when his wife, the writer Danielle Crittenden, bragged of his achievement in a mass e-mail.

"I think it's pretty clear that he took this job in order to write this memoir," adds conservative columnist Robert Novak. Frum and Novak clashed last year when Novak reported that Frum was fired from the White House after the e-mail incident. Frum and the White House both denied this.


http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.15615,filter.all/pub_detail.asp