Cohen: The President Vanishes

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34164-2004Oct14?language=printer

For months now I've dropped bets on the presidential election like Hansel (of "Hansel and Gretel") dropped pebbles. For honor and money, I've wagered on George Bush, not because I wanted him to win but rather because I thought he would. Now I'm changing my mind. It's not the tightening polls that have done it -- I knew that would happen -- but rather something I could not have predicted. The president is missing.

The president I have in mind is the funny, good-natured regular guy I once saw on the campaign trail -- a man of surprisingly quick wit and just plain likeability. I contrasted this man to John Kerry, who is as light and as funny as a mud wall, and I thought, "There goes the election."

Where it has mattered most -- the three debates -- Bush has been wooden, ill at ease and downright spooky. He makes bad jokes, cackles at them in the manner of a cinematic serial killer and has lacked the warmth that he not only once had but that I thought would compensate for a disastrous presidency and give him a second -- God help us -- term. In short, he could take over the Bates Motel in an instant.

Just what has happened to Bush I shall get to in an instant. Right now I want to quote that newest font of all political wisdom, Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show," who said at a New Yorker-sponsored breakfast yesterday morning that he had seen at least two Bushes in recent days: the "angry Bush from the second debate" and a thickly muddled one.

Stewart was kidding, but all jokes must be based on truth or else they are not funny. The truth in this case was that Bush has been inconsistent -- definitely not the reliably unswerving man we prefer as our country's steward.

[cybildisobedience]

1. I am so sick of this vapid columns

from inside the Beltway geniuses:
"Oh Bush was funny. I wanted to be his friend. Therefore, he was justified in stealing the most powerful office in the world.
Gore wasn't fun.
Neither is Kerry.
That's why I didn't want them."

always followed by:
"How did we get in this mess?"

Duh -- people like Cohen is how we got in it.

[Catfight]

3. So very true, like the mother who doesn't watch her children and when

the child is missing and dead is on TV saying, "how could this happen, she was such a sweet little girl!" MORANS!

[KC21304]

4. You sure have that right.

Just read today that Hilary said Kerry changes his positions to fit the facts and Bush changes the facts to fit his positions.

I disagree with Cohen that Bush's faith gig is real. The Frontline program showed how in 88 he latched onto Robertson's MO, after Robertson gave Bush I a few bad days. Shrub saw how the fundies were doing things and decided to co-op their methods.

[BeyondGeography]

2. Cohen is an idiot who stands for nothing

Which is why he thrives on the Washington social scene. I guess the only thing of interest here is that others in his spineless circle of pundocrats must be saying the same thing since he never sticks his neck out for anything.