©2004 UrbisMedia
Prevarication seems to come as easily to Republican politicians these days as does gullibility to their constituency. The willingness of the latter to believe that their leader’s implication that it was Iraqis who flew those planes on 9-11, that Saddam had WMDs at the ready to use on the rest of us, that the mission was “accomplished,” that giving the rich a big tax break helps the poor, that a big break for Big Pharm is a health program, and on and on.
The problem is that the Big Lies work. Goebbels knew it, and Karl Rove knows it. And if enough people are willing – out of gullibility, stupidity, or just plain moral laxity – to accept enough of them to give Bush 270 electoral votes, then Goebbels/Rove will be proven right again. Of course, on this occasion, a host of blatantly dirty political tricks have been added for good measure—purging voter lists, losing registrations of Democrats and lost absentee ballots, and intimidating minority voters at polls—to Republican ethics.
So it was so easy for the administration to lie when at all three debates the cameras disclosed a curious formation on the back of George Bush. At the first one it was a T-shaped bulge, then on the latter two debates the formation had gained so padding. When asked about it the administration replied at first that it was “nothing” (always start out with flat-out denial). But, like Abu Ghraib, pictures were a problem, so the answer became that it was a bunched up shirt, then a badly-tailored suit jacket. Sure, even Bush isn’t stupid enough to wear such a shirt or jacket three times!
This invited all sorts of speculation about what “the bulge”. The mainline press didn’t seem very interested in it, but the internet burned with speculation about the most likely explanation: that Bush was getting his debate answers wired in to him, added to by the curious lengthy pauses in some of his responses. But there doesn’t seem any real need to phone in Bush’s answers. We already know what they are. So they probably just give him his lies, wind him up, and send him out there.
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©2004, James A. Clapp (UrbisMedia Ltd. Pub. 11.2.2004)