- The evolution of George Bush's persona over the past
few weeks is startling for even the most casual observers. Only a short
while ago, Bush was a strong, decisive leader and Kerry was a weak, flip-flopping
Massachusetts liberal. The Bush campaign expected those images to carry
them through the November elections: it had cost them more than $200m (£112m)
to build those caricatures and they had every reason to expect a solid
return on their investment.
-
- But those images were built on a carefully crafted stage.
Despite all the flaws in the US electoral process we still force the candidates
to exit that bubble a handful of times during the election, and it is some
credit to the system that those three 90-minute debates can still determine
the fate of an election. This year, they have helped introduce the nation
to Furious George.
-
- Bush's political operators have worked overtime to make
"angry" a pejorative term this political cycle. They wielded
the "too angry" attack against Howard Dean in the primaries,
when it seemed Dean would be the Democratic nominee, and it helped destroy
Dean's candidacy. Republicans again shouted "too angry" to discredit
Al Gore's series of impassioned anti-Bush speeches earlier this year.
-
- The "too angry" claims successfully marginalised
the content of those speeches - blistering indictments of an incompetent
administration. But what happens when your best attack line is a double-edged
sword?
-
- Bush's operation has taken stage management to extremes.
His handlers have figured - correctly - that the press conference format
suits their man poorly and is to be avoided at all costs. His last primetime
press conference was in April 2004, and he has had only two with the White
House press corps since late August - both of them with the Iraqi prime
minister, Ayad Allawi, at his side. (The Bush campaign actually wrote Allawi's
speech in order to squeeze out precious political points.)
-
- Bush's campaign appearances are not much better. While
Kerry's events are open to the public, Bush's affairs require the signing
of a "loyalty oath". Quietly wearing an anti-Bush T-shirt or
badge is grounds for expulsion.
-
- Bush faces only adoring audiences vetted by the campaign's
enforcers. At his town hall events, questions are planted for maximum political
effect. At one, a veteran merely got up and requested permission to salute
his commander in chief. Compelling visuals? Perhaps. But it does little
to acquaint Bush with reality.
-
- Campaign commercials do their best to paint an alternative
reality in which Bush is an effective leader and Kerry is anything but.
Entire media networks, such as Fox News and Sinclair Broadcasting, prop
up Bush in a way that would make their fellow propagandists in North Korea
and Cuba proud. Sinclair, in fact, will pre-empt local programming on its
62 stations to air an anti-Kerry movie days before the election - unless
a blog-led boycott forces a reversal.
-
- Given the force of Republican efforts to deify Bush,
his debate performances came as a big shock to many Americans. They showed
a Bush quick to anger, indecisiveness, pettiness and petulance. The sheltered
Bush was clearly unprepared for the debate and unprepared to face criticism.
In fact, it seemed to take him by surprise. No one seemed to have told
him he had critics.
-
- After his first debate performance, Bush was in a quandary.
He had to stem his erosion in the polls, but to do so would require attacking
Kerry and furthering the perception that he was too angry to be president.
-
- So how did he respond? By getting even more angry. He
not only viciously attacked Kerry but also took out the moderator and several
questioners in the process. Someone, somewhere, labelled Bush Furious George
- a clever turn on HA Rey's Curious George children's books and an appellation
that took firm hold in the online and, increasingly, offline worlds.
-
- Bush acted like the proverbial ugly American trying to
be understood in a foreign land, cranking up the volume and shrillness
to make his points while Kerry sat by serenely. The contrast was impossible
to miss as Bush became increasingly unhinged. Even on the road, Bush's
desperation is palpable as the rhetoric soars to angrier heights.
-
- Bush is now hemmed in. With poll after poll showing small
Kerry leads, he needs to do something to regain the momentum. His campaign's
attack ads have kept him in the game but he is not pulling away. Furthermore,
he is well below the 50% mark in most key battleground state polls - a
mark of political vulnerability.
-
- If he cannot convince people to vote for him, he will
have to convince people to vote against Kerry, and to do that he has to
attack, attack, attack. And since it takes more skill than Bush possesses
to attack without appearing angry, well, he's in a real bind.
-
- Bush's political operation has conditioned the electorate
to distrust "anger". It has made the charge a cornerstone of
its smear effort against Democrats such as Dean and Gore. For a campaign
that lives by the smear, it is poetic justice to see the tables turned.
Furious George is here to stay.
-
- - Markos Moulitsas runs the dailykos.com US political
blog, and Our Congress, a blog tracking the hottest congressional races
-
- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/markosmoul
itsas/story/0,15139,1325454,00.html
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