Dear Mrs. Bush: Your Son Failed The Global Test
Please come in for a conference.

October 6 2004
Counterbias.com
by Steve Horowitz

I had expressed the hope in my previous column that Bush would be exposed in the debate as the small, inadequate man that he is. Well, I got my wish. As he hunched over his podium, squinting and smirking like a chimp confused by a plastic banana, Bush showed the world how frighteningly incapable he is.

He whined that Kerry "changes positions." He pleaded for us to believe that "the world is a safer place" with Saddam Hussein in jail. He reminded us, over and over and over, that fighting terrorism is hard work; fighting Iraqi insurgents is hard work; consoling war widows is hard work: "You know, it's hard work to try to love her as best as I can, knowing full well that the decision I made caused her loved one to be in harm's way." (By which he means her husband did the hard work of getting killed for no reason.)

He even went biblical on us, closing with "We've climbed the mighty mountain. I see the valley below, and it's a valley of peace."

(I knew Moses. Moses was a patriarch of mine. Mr. President, you're no Moses.)

The funny thing about the post-debate quarterbacking is how so many people seem to have noticed the squinting, smirking chimp for the first time, when he's been front and center at every press conference, every joint appearance with other leaders, pleading (We're safer! I'm not fooling!) and straining desperately for the keywords his trainers have taught him (steadfast, strong, resolve, resolute, will, wilt, waver, freedom, hard work).

I guess the difference on Thursday was having an intelligent, rational politician standing beside him who was primed to -- for once! -- challenge him on each and every lie.

And a 90-minute debate could not contain all of them.

So now Bush is back on the campaign trail, attacking Kerry's reference to a "global test" for pre-emptive war. And, as usual, his speechwriters are doing a good job of turning the idea -- making a justifiable case for deadly aggression -- into some kind of wilting, effeminate submission to the whims of other nations.

Except now the "strong, resolute" Bush has been exposed as a weak, purse-lipped fraud.

The mystery is why it took this long for everyone to see it.

Steve Horowitz is a freelance advertising and political writer living in Hollywood, Fla. His blog is Love America, Hate Bush.