Bush ain't no real cowboy. He's a fraud.

[mainer]

George W. Bush Ain't No Cowboy
by Erik Baard
September 28th, 2004 10:10 AM


George W. Bush is a fake cowboy. From media accounts, you'd reckon that the president was a buckaroo to the bones. He plays up the image, big-time, with $300 designer cowboy boots, a $1,000 cowboy hat, and his 1,600-acre Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas. He guns his rhetoric with frontier lingo, saying that he'll "ride herd" over ornery Middle Eastern governments and "smoke out" enemies in wild mountain passes. He branded Saddam Hussein's Iraq "an outlaw regime" and took the vanquished dictator's pistol as a trophy. As for Osama bin Laden, Bush declared, "I want justice. And there's an old poster out West, I recall, that says, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive.' " Britain's liberal newspaper The Guardian noted that "such language feeds the image overseas of Mr. Bush as a hopelessly inarticulate, trigger-happy cowboy."

But liberals from both coasts and Europeans who derisively call Bush a "cowboy" foolishly insult not Bush, but one of America's prime ennobling myths. Instead of ridiculing the myth exploited by George W. Bush, they may want to measure him against it.

"The idea of the American cowboy is the direct lineal descendant of the chivalric knight," observes Bonnie Wheeler, a medievalist in cowboy country. "The only serious difference is that your status doesn't depend on your social class." Editor of Arthuriana, the journal of Arthurian studies, Wheeler teaches at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

"Our president," she says, "is neither a knight nor a cowboy. He doesn't believe in taking care of the little guy, nor does he have the restraint or dignity of the cowboy...."



http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0439/baard.php

[greatauntoftriplets]

1. Hell...he is afraid of horses!

So I have read. And the stage-set ranch used to be a pig farm.

SOOOO-EEEEYYYY!

[Green Lantern]

8. If he is afraid of horses

then why is there such a pile of horseshit right behind him?

[grace0418]

10. You've seen that ACT ad with Will Ferrell

right? So funny I almost wet myself. He gets totally freaked out by the horses. At one point, as he's running away from one while the director tries to assure him that they're not going to hurt him, he asks "Are you sure it's not a bear, or a pum?" Hooooo that was some funny shit.

[RareLubbockDem]

2. As a true Texan, I couldn't agree more EOM

[beaconess]

3. John Edwards zinger:

"Just because he walks around that ranch he just bought wearin' a big ole belt buckle doesn't mean he understands regular people!"

[SammyWinstonJack]

6. Oh that is good!

Didn't Pickles say that bush* calls himself a "windshield cowboy"? Because he rides around his pig farm..er.. I mean ranch in a pick 'em up truck?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. And the ads he puts out.... are a fraud as well.... factcheck this:

http://www.factcheck.org/search.aspx

Just enter Cheney Defense in the search window... this is what you will get.... only in much greater detail when you click on the links.....

More Bush Distortions of Kerry Defense Record
Latest barrage of ads repeats misleading claims that Kerry "repeatedly opposed" mainstream weapons.

Did Kerry Oppose Tanks & Planes? Not Lately
Kerry voted often against nuclear missiles and bombers in the '90s, but GOP claims that he opposed a long list of conventional weapons are overblown.

Bush Strains Facts Re: Kerry's Plan To Cut Intelligence Funding in '90's
President claims 1995 Kerry plan would "gut" the intelligence services. It was a 1% cut, and key Republicans approved something similar.

Did Kerry Vote "No" on Body Armor for Troops?
Yes, along with $87 billion worth of other things. But Bush didn't send enough in the first place.

Anti-Kerry Ad Misses Context, Distorts Facts
Pro-Bush group repeats misleading attacks on Kerry's defense record.

[liveoaktx]

5. After watching Hijacking Catastrophe, I question whether his

speech is riddled with mistakes accidentally or purposefully. How better to get angry white guys to go fight your PNAC war than to look and talk like a regular guy?

He purposefully has said the wrong thing over and over about the Abu Nidal, even after being corrected... so it's not an accident. What if his speech is being salted with mispronounced words that not only draw attention to him but reinforce the regular working slob type guy?

[Zhade]

12. I watched that tonight, too. Excellent piece of work.

NT!

[Lisa]

7. great article!

Since when is being deceitful and manipulative -- or whining about "hard work" -- part of the cowboy mystique? I don't ever recall seeing Gene Autry or John Wayne snickering about how they've suckered somebody, or complaining about having a tough time of it.

[Must_B_Free]

9. He's not a real cowboy, he's a Sears cowboy...

[evilqueen]

11. Do you think he's pissing off the real cowboys?

I do.

[Joe Turner]

13. Bush is a Drug Store Cowboy

There is absolutely nothing Cowboy about him except his hat and boots. It's amazing how successful BushCo has been in crafting this false imagine of Shrub. Yet, another case of the media falling down on the job of investigative reporting. Worse, America continues to remain in the dark about criminal legacy of the Bush Family Dynasty.

[antonialee839]

14. He reminded me of a cowboy

during the debate. When Kerry brought up daddy, I thought Bush
had to do everything in his power not to jump from behind the podium and start jumping up and down like Yosemite Sam with a pair of six shooters. Even more so when that varmint Jim had the nerve to use the words Kerry and president in the same sentence.