The American President
Will Bush finally catch Osama? We can only hope

November 6 2004
Counterbias.com
Scott C. Smith

Election 2004 is finally over, and George W. Bush has emerged the winner.

How did it happen?  By any measurement of presidential success or failure, Bush should not have won. He had no major domestic programs to campaign on, the economy was struggling, job creation was slow, and oil prices had reached record highs.

Bush, however, is an expert politician. Or, rather, his handlers are expert politicians.

Karl Rove and Bush’s political team were responsible for creating the Bush presidential persona, a persona that resonated with Middle America. Under controlled and scripted situations, Bush was charming, engaging, and seemed to generally care for his supporters. Despite having blood as blue as John Kerry’s, coming from the same kind of wealthy background (exclusive prep school, Ivy-league education), Bush’s image was more blue-collar that John Kerry. Despite his personal fortune, Bush’s public image was that of a guy you might have as your neighbor. On vacation, Bush was usually photographed at his Crawford ranch, dressed in cowboy gear, engaged in regular-guy chores.

Perception was the key to Bush’s win.  Bush voters based their votes primarily on the perception that Bush would protect them from terrorist attacks, and the perception that Bush embraced specific moral values.

John Kerry, on the other hand, was perceived as a wealthy elitist, someone who could not be trusted with the security of the United States (as if George W. Bush stands watch at the White House, rifle in hand, ready to fend off terrorists, Arnold Schwarzenegger style).  Kerry’s free time was spent in activities such as snowboarding or windsurfing, living the good life of wealth and prestige, disconnected from the middle-class and unable to identify with their needs.

The attacks of September 11, 2001, ended up being the best thing to happen to George W. Bush. Behind the scenes, Bush was dressed up for the role of war-time president, in shirt-sleeves at ground zero, bullhorn in hand, speaking to the New York fire fighters.

Bush was in Florida when America was attacked, visiting an elementary school.  And in footage made infamous by Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, Americans were able to see the real George W. Bush in an unscripted moment: as the children in the Booker Elementary School classroom read aloud, the second plane hit the Twin Towers.  Andrew Card, Bush’s chief of staff, is seen in the video approaching Bush and whispering in his ear: “America is under attack.”

And what did Bush do?

Nothing.

This footage of Bush in the classroom following being told by Card can be found easily on the Internet. We see Bush holding a book, My Pet Goat, a grimace on his face, waiting for instructions on what to do next. Meanwhile, in New York City, workers at the Twin Towers were leaping to their deaths.

The man responsible for the September 11 attacks, Osama bin Laden, remains at large to this day. The network Al-Jazeera aired a new tape from bin Laden, and the man Bush once wanted brought to justice, Old West style, mocked the Commander-in-Chief: “Before Bush and his administration would pay attention and we never thought that the high commander of the U.S. armies would leave 50 thousand of his citizens in both towers to face the horrors by themselves…it seemed to distract his attention from listening to the girl telling him about her goat butting…which gave us three times the time to execute the operation.”

Bush seems to exist in a protective bubble, free from criticism. Bush’s handlers have made sure that anytime the Bush administration blunders, Bush is not hit with the fallout.

Is George W. Bush really going to protect America in a way that John Kerry could not?  No, he’s not.  To this day America remains at risk from terrorist attack, despite the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and its one major accomplishment, the creation of a color-coded terrorist threat level indicator.

In campaign stump speeches, Vice President Dick Cheney made sure to terrify his base with worst-case scenarios, should John Kerry be elected. In a speech on October 21 in Carroll, Ohio, Cheney said, “The biggest threat we face now as a nation is the possibility of terrorists ending up in the middle of one of our cities with deadlier weapons than have ever before been used against us -- biological agents or a nuclear weapon or a chemical weapon of some kind to be able to threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans."

If the Bush administration has done such a great job of protecting America, how could the scenario Cheney describe even happen? The answer is simple: team Bush has done nothing to protect us from that kind of attack. Maybe the Bush administration will get around to it in the next four years.

I’ve heard conservatives say that they feel safe under the leadership of George W. Bush. The fact that Osama bin Laden remains at large, frankly, does not fill me with a sense of security. Bush famously said in 2002 that he was not concerned with capturing bin Laden: “Well, as I say, we haven't heard much from him. And I wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don't know where he is. I -- I'll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him.”

Now that America has given George W. Bush another four years in office, I hope this time he does become concerned with the capture of bin Laden. At least then I’d feel safer than I do now.