Monday, September 20, 2004
Finding Your Inner 12-Year-Old
kid colour
Originally uploaded by jonnybutter.
This election seems to hinge on what 'strength' means. Does it mean strong like an adult or strong in the conception of a 12 year old boy? The choice is yours America!
Josh Marshall sniffs the whiff of a trial balloon (filled with god knows what) laboriously hauled out and heaved into the sky by Robert Novak:
Inside the Bush administration policymaking apparatus, there is strong feeling that U.S. troops must leave Iraq next year. This determination is not predicated on success in implanting Iraqi democracy and internal stability. Rather, the officials are saying: Ready or not, here we go.
[To get the full effect, you need to enter Novak's parallel universe and read the whole column]
This is kind of a big deal, actually. Quite the gamble for the Bushies, in a way. Josh mentions the two campaign messages, one for thoughtful conservatives and one for the 'hands over the eyes' supporters, but....the twain surely meet, don't they?
[Another interesting note is the idea that the Bush 'administration' sees an Iraq in civil war as preferable to one with Saddam in charge! (Really, go read the column). Now THAT is one for the record books! 'It's all part of the plan, grasshoppah'! That is beyond mere 'spin' - it's rhetorical vertigo!]
I guess the upshot is: if the second Bush administration pulls out of Iraq peremptorily, it'll be because they're strong and resolute; if the Kerry administration does it, it's because...well, frankly, they're "fags", 'girlymen'. Who do you want in the WH in this age of 'terra'? Girlymen or Machos?
