CBS News | Bush To Rally Iraq Support | August 22, 2005?11:00:05
My lucky family in Salt Lake will have the dubious pleasure of a Presidential visit there; meanwhile the anti-war activists on the Cindy Sheehan bandwagon couldn’t even get an ad on one local TV station, because it was deemed likely to be “offensive to the community.”
No, really it’s likely to be “offensive to the conservative power base most likely to support Bush while his ratings take a dive with everyone else.”
A comment on Dan Froomkin’s Washington Post “live interactive” page from a while back comes to mind every time Bush and his handlers schedule these big, transparently manipulated public events:
Chico, Calif.: Is there still a sense that, even though Rove and Company hit the “Rally Base” button hard and often, Bush is still trying to do what he thinks is best for the country?
Dan Froomkin: I think you have just asked one of the most important questions of the second term. It first came to me during all these Social Security events, where the White House was only letting in people who essentially agreed with Bush. Doesn’t he seem (sic) himself as the president of all the people?
And Rove of course is at the febrile center of this question. As I wrote in my newly updated Who’s Who in the White House recently, Rove, with his new deputy chief of staff duties, “is the poster child for how politics and policy have merged in the Bush White House. Traditionally, governing is a considerably different matter than running for office, where winning is everything. Not so with Rove. If he eventually starts losing, he could end up taking the blame for creating a divisive presidency, aimed more at achieving partisan goals than the common good. But if he keeps winning, he will be a kingmaker even as his boss becomes a lame duck — and his legacy could be a GOP that is indeed the ruling party for decades to come.”
Personally, I think somebody carries the Rally Base button everywhere the President goes, rather like the “football,” but connected to the neo-con commentators and talking-points regurgitators instead of to Strategic Air Command.
And Utah isn’t quite as unilaterally aligned on the right as it may appear (or at least Salt Lake isn’t). So even in the heart of Zion, the personal appearance has to be carefully controlled and stage managed to filter out any “unsupportive” elements. Gosh, that’s might brave of Our Duh Leader going into the lion’s mouth like that.