The ventriloquist jokes don't bug the White House

[JoFerret]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/02/weekinreview/02wash.html

WASHINGTON — Jay Leno spoke for a lot of people in the blue states last week when he joked about the extraordinary joint interview of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney by the commission investigating the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

"I guess right now they're finalizing the seating arrangements,'' Mr. Leno said on "The Tonight Show." "Should Bush sit on Cheney's right knee or his left knee?''

....


This was hardly news at the White House, where no one doubts who is in charge. Although Mr. Cheney is the most powerful vice president in history, it is Mr. Bush who makes the decisions, overruling, if necessary, Mr. Cheney.

....

Yet the perception persists among Mr. Bush's most fervent critics: Mr. Cheney is de facto president, and a clueless Mr. Bush takes his orders from him.....

"People on the left hear Bush discuss things in such simple ways, and yet carry off what seem to be diabolical plots so effortlessly, that they can't believe it's really him,'' said David R. Gergen....

Mr. Bush's advisers, who still bristle at the perception, acknowledge that it has benefits.

"Look, the best commodity in politics is to be underestimated,'' said Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director. "He's happy to keep expectations low. He's been underestimated in politics since he first ran for office.''

For a half-century, Republicans have embraced anti-intellectualism...., in some cases as a way to broaden the party's reach. The tradition started with Dwight D. Eisenhower, the West Point graduate who mangled the English language but was more purposefully obtuse than was known at the time.
....
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[Bush_Eats_Beef]

1. Gee, thanks New York Times, but he's still an effing idiot

"Mr. Cheney is de facto president, and a clueless Mr. Bush takes his orders from him"...

Add Karl Rove, the living embodiment of "keep your friends close and your enemies closer," and more-annoying-than-1,000,000-mails-scraping-down-1,000,000-blackboards Karen Hughes, and you don't even need Bush. He can take his naps and go to bed early and Uncle Evil Dick will run things just fine.

What a laugh. "He's happy to keep expectations low?" Well, he's got a lot to be happy about.

[DeaconBlues]

2. Jesus, how many of these effing correspondence dinners do they have?

Instead of schmoozing it up with the powerful, shouldn't they be doing something else? Like, I don't know, like investigating the powerful? No wonder the media sucks in this country.

[leesa]

13. Gotta keep the whores in the fold.

Wine em and dine em and they will pretend Bush is a wise leader and things are going swell.

[pinniped]

3. When the F has dickhead ever "overruled" dick?

It appears quite obvious to me that the stupid pres. is a clueless idiot.

You mean the idiot was to originally sit on his left knee?

[Tuttle]

4. I'm surprised they didn't show a film of Cheney

torturing a puppet that looked like Bush: that would get some big laughs!

Tut-tut

[Toots]

5. President Clinton said " Underestimate Bush* at your own peril"

We need to wake up here folks. Bush* is an actor. He is no dummy. How do you think he has gotten virtually every single thing he has proposed? We need to take him and his intentions very seriously. Democrats are fools if they continue on this idea that Bush* is a moron. He is a traitor to American principle but a fool, hardly.

[Dirty Hippie]

7. Molly Ivins agrees whith you

She has always said * is not stupid.

[General Discontent]

25. Oh yeah....

He's not really an idiot, he just plays one on TV.

DWolfman

[w4rma]

15. They underestimated Adolph Hitler, too. They thought he was a moron. (nt)

[Ms. Clio]

18. At least Hitler could write a book

Chimpy can't even read one.

[loyalsister]

21. Glad you agree

I have been saying this for a long time.
He isn't even held responsible for saying horrible things intentionally, because people assume he didn't mean it because of this reputation that he's stupid.
They have a criminal administrations dream. The president himself is "too dumb" to actually do anything diabolical on purpose, so it couldn't have been their fault.

[progressivebydesign]

23. Remember the absolutely most telling line of the 2000 election:

A journalist embedded in the campaigns, wrote (and I paraphrse): .. the most surprising thing about the two candidates, and something the people don't know is that Bush is not as stupid as people think, and Gore is not as intelligent. And, Gore is a lot nicer than people think, and Bush is at lot less nice.

In other words. The M.F.s at the GOP were brilliant in portraying Gore as a heartless, dull, brainiac, and Bush as an affable, every-day intelligent, good old boy. When in reality.. Gore is REALLy the one you'd want to have a beer with. Bush is mean, and sarcastic, and vindictive. He may spout all the religion he wants but he does NOT have a Christian heart. He is a terrible liar, so he cannot speak on his feet. He's not stupid, he's simple and cruel. It's scarier.

[devinsgram]

6. "He's happy to keep expectations low."

Well, I don't know about anybody else, but my expectations of a president are that he at least know a little bit more than me. Now I'm not a brain surgeon, but I'm a lot smarter than * and I don't have a college degree. And when I hear a speech, I at least expect it to make sense, not the dribble that comes from mouth. Unbelievable!!

[gulliver]

8. An inept guy in charge.

Of course Bush is in charge. This is an inept administration. Look at the results in Iraq, the environment, the budget, the "tone in Washington." The Supreme Court gave the car keys of the country to a grown man with a four-year-old mentality. It's no surprise the car has been wrecked and people killed.

This business about Dick Cheney not "giving orders" is a straw man. Of course Cheney doesn't give orders. But that doesn't mean he doesn't guide and manipulate the ignorant Bush. Bush brings ignorant and reckless instincts; Cheney helps Bush convert them into Cheney-approved policy. It is a sick situation.

[0007]

9. They probably didn't get it!!

[Bonobo]

10. If they say it doesn't bug them, you can bet that it really does!

Why the hell else would they say it doesn't bug them. It's just like when a boxer gets tagged a good one and then says he's not hurt. Guess what, they almost always ARE hurt. It's just show and spin.

[schultzee]

11. For my rePIG neighbors, I would like to put an "elect Chaney 04"

outside my driveway. Of course I am ABB.

[Ms. Clio]

17. That was exactly my first thought, too!

I'm certain this means the peevish squatter in the People's House comes utterly unglued with every joke--BRING 'EM ON!

[takebackourjobs]

12. Gergen debunks another conspiracy theory

"... He's been underestimated in politics since he first ran for office.''

And with very good reason. My local dogcatcher thinks he's a little on the dull side.

[newyawker99]

26. Hi takebackourjobs!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[rocketdem]

14. they have reached the summit

"For a half-century, Republicans have embraced anti-intellectualism ..."

Well then, they've truly hit their stride with this administration. I cannot imagine how they could top Bush in this respect unless they start recruiting candidates from the Jerry Springer Show.

[truthisfreedom]

16. people misunderestimated bush...

[Entente]

19. This gotta be the most ridiculous article

A president that likes to be underestimated???? Why?? Whyy is that?

Why would someone be happy that they are underestimated? Isn't that a psychological game that should have no place in this important position?


My underestimating thoughts on Bush keep getting proven and franly he has only surprised me by getting himself somehow in office and nothing else. He might pull it off again in November but besides he will not surprie us with his hidden intelligence by nothing else but dragging us and the rest of the world into the mud.

[Cocoa]

20. how did I know this was Elizabeth Bumiller?

just by the headline, before I even knew it was the NYT, I had a feeling...

[progressivebydesign]

22. This kind of statement makes me nuts!

<< Although Mr. Cheney is the most powerful vice president in history, it is Mr. Bush who makes the decisions, overruling, if necessary, Mr. Cheney>> Now, the writer of this puff piece, do they KNOW FOR A FACT that Bush makes the decisions? Or is this an unattributed quote from the spokesmonsters at the White HOuse?? It's obviously a quote or a line fed to the article writer (whom I refuse to call a journalist). We all freakin' know that Bush doesn't run the country.. puh-lease. This is an insult to our intelligence.

[Devils Advocate NZ]

24. Don't fall for this crap...

As the Daily Howler has been pointing out, it is the new Bush 2004 meme - "Bush is In Charge". That was the purpose of Woodward's book. It was a "limited hangout", just enough "bad" stuff that we all knew anyway so that we would be more inclined to believe the actual message "Bush is in control".

It is being repeated over and over again in the media now - "Bush is in control, Bush is in charge". Anything repeated this often in the right-wing media is automatically suspect. It is obviously what they want you to believe, which to me means that it is totally UNTRUE.

Murray starts with a simple question: “So why is the White House giving such a warm embrace?” After all, Murray notes, Rush Limbaugh has called the book “an anti-Bush screed,” and Bill Press has said that Kerry will “win by a landslide” if it is widely read. Why, then, has the White House expressed satisfaction with Woodward’s text? Murray finally gives his answer—the book makes Bush’s aides look bad, but it makes Bush look like that Strong Leader:

MURRAY: If there is any bias in the Woodward book, it is the standard tendency of Washington journalism to lean toward their best sources. In this case, Woodward’s best source was the U.S. president. All else aside, the book depicts the president as strong and in charge of his own administration. Those around him appear in less flattering light.
http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh043004.shtml