Bush's talk of the 'war president' and the 'homeland president' is a mix of denials and avoidances, writes Sidney Blumenthal.
Even now, the White House - or at least one room, the Lincoln bedroom - is being redecorated for President Bush's second term. The famous long bed will remain; so will the original Emancipation Proclamation in its glass case. But above the bed will be placed a large carved crown from which will flow, ceiling to floor, royal purple satin drapes. The crown has been sent to be gilded with gold in anticipation of Bush's triumphant return from his campaign.
Bush began the TV debates with John Kerry ahead in the polls. After grimacing his way through the first debate, he corrected himself by maintaining strict control of facial muscles in his second. Then after he channelled his boiling emotions into hot-headed belligerence, he recast himself for the third debate with fixed grins however grim the subject. It was his best performance, and the best he could do - and not good enough.
The final debate focused on Bush's weak point, the home front, where he lagged on every issue. On the eve, polls revealed that voters want a change in direction, a new president, but remained tentative about Kerry. On that soft ice, despite the dead heat, the incumbent could prevail by asserting his mastery.
Bush's story is only of the "war president". As he tells it, September 11th leads him in a straight line to invade Iraq, and "freedom is on the march". True or not, it is a simple story that many can follow. But his narrative of the "homeland president" is a melange of avoidances and denials. Chronology is crucified, cause and effect stood on their heads. Under his aegis, nearly one million jobs have been lost, the worst record since the Great Depression; he has squandered the largest surplus and created the largest deficit; more than 4.5 million people have lost their health insurance and more than 45 million are uncovered; and so it goes on.
But in Bush's telling, for example, his regressive tax, source of much of the deficit, passed before September 11th, was enacted afterward. He mentioned as little as possible his Medicare prescription drug bill, despised by most of the elderly, who will pay more - a bill approved only because the Medicare actuary was threatened with dismissal should he tell Congress the true cost. (The twisting of information and intimidation on the Medicare bill are similar to the distortions and coercion in the rush to the Iraq war.)
Bush attempted to change the subject to his fictional version of his education bill, "Leave No Child Behind", evidence of "compassionate conservatism". Asked by the moderator whether he favoured an increase in the minimum wage, he hailed his achievement on education, but never responded to Kerry's factual addition that Bush had failed to secure the $28 billion needed to implement the measure. Nor did Bush acknowledge that many states have filed suits in federal courts against "Leave No Child Behind" due to the absence of funding, or that the original sponsor of the bill was Senator Edward Kennedy.
Instead, he used Kennedy as a straw man. "There's a mainstream in American politics and you sit right on the far left bank," the president charged. "As a matter of fact, your record is such that Ted Kennedy, your colleague, is the conservative senator from Massachusetts."
Kerry's performance, consistent with previous ones, disclosed his knowledge of policy and toughness - and refuted the negative image projected by the Bush campaign of him as flip-flopper. He too raised the icon of Kennedy - this time John F Kennedy - to establish his credentials on Bush's supposed high ground, the cardinal virtues of faith.
After Bush skirted the question of whether he would appoint supreme court justices who would uphold Roe v Wade, the decision legalising abortion, Kerry defended women's right to choose as a "constitutional right", defended gay rights, and passionately defended the minimum wage. And then he said: "I grew up a Catholic. I was an altar boy. Throughout my life this has made a difference to me. And as President Kennedy said when he ran for president, he said, 'I'm not running to be a Catholic president. I'm running to be a president who happens to be Catholic.' My faith affects everything that I do, in truth. There's a great passage of the Bible that says, 'What does it mean, my brother, to say you have faith if there are no deeds? Faith without works is dead'."
Haunted by his father's defeat, Bush's presidency has been a case study in reaction formation. He marched to Baghdad, ensured he had no enemy to his right, and cut taxes regardless of deficit. In the last debate, he sputtered about "a liberal senator from Massachusetts", repeating attack lines from his father's old campaign and coming full circle in pursuit of the gilded crown.
-(Guardian Service)
Sidney Blumenthal, a former senior adviser to President Clinton, is Washington bureau chief of salon.com