I will never understand the relationship between GWB and America after 9/11.

[LadyLeigh]

In every other civilized nation, an event as massive as 9/11 could very well have lead to a president resigning. At the very least, very tough questions would be asked, and possibly a detailed investigation by the opposition into whether there was gross neglect involved. A president who let something so massive happen would likely be hammered in the next election. In authoritarian states, the leader would possibly be ousted by a coup. In America, what happened instead was this:



I think this figure allows only two possible conclusions: Either the data are false or at least 85% of Americans are complete idiots.

[grasswire]

1. I think the variable is the corruption of the U.S. media.

They knew that wherever Bush took the country, it would mean massive profits not only for their own business concerns, but paths to make money off investments, too.

[leveymg]

18. You're quite right. That poll is a mirror that CNN holds up to its own role as amplifier of lies

and confusion.

We are a nation that is largely afraid to think for ourselves and have had our critical abilities ground out of us. Americans pay a heavy price for questioning authority, and an even heavier price over the long run for not questioning the political leadership, corporate owning class, and the mass media. We aren't that different from the former Soviet Union in that respect.

[orpupilofnature57]

2. We were Cajoled in to swallowing him ,because his father is Satan ..

and we were still Drunk as Shrub from the Clinton years ,little did we know what to really fear ,enemies from within usurping our country under the shield of profit as a right and duty, a responsible agenda.

[Maccagirl]

4. Of course you're using the royal "we" as both of us were not cajoled into swallowing anything

Well said, though, and you are completely correct.

[orpupilofnature57]

5. Your right ,We had him crammed down our throats.

And the insult was the rest of us that rationalized the little creep.

[alsame]

3. A Democratic administration would have been criticized,

investigated and probably impeached.

There would have been no kumbaya moment on the Capitol steps. No 90% approval, no bipartisan solidarity. The GOP would have gone for the jugular and destroyed the Democrats. And the media would have helped them every step of the way.

[brewens]

6. What if a bonified terrorist mastermind had pulled of an

attack on 9/11/2008? Not the kind of attack that could have and should have been prevented, like the first 9/11 attack. I mean one that no one could have seen coming and couldn't have been stopped.

Can you imagine the right-wingers getting behind Obama the way the country did for Bush? Not a chance. He would have been blamed no matter what. Obama may even have been impeached for conspiring to attack his own country. Republicans demanding we retaliate against Kenya and whatever else you can imagine. They are that deranged.

[JI7]

7. if Gore was in office he would have been forced to resign, impeached

at the very least he would have lost re-election. the whore media would never have let it go.

but with Bush 9/11 happens and people are thanking god Gore wasn't President ? why ? because maybe Gore might have prevented it ?

[moobu2]

8. They just took advantage of our unity after 9.11

I was caught up in it to until they started claiming Iraq had WMDs and shit.

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. Personally, I think our country was taken by a social. political and military coup in 2000.

[WinkyDink]

13. Absolutely. The SCOTUS was then and is now a criminal enterprise.

[Uncle Joe]

14. I agree, 12/12/00 was the beginning of the nation's heart attack and all those spikes

of Bush popularity as signified in the OP represent the corporate media applying shock paddles to the American People and yelling "clear!" regardless of Bush's corruption, dereliction of duty, dishonesty, incompetence, war crimes and general malfeasance.




The Bush Maladministration was dead to the American People but the corporate media empowered, enabled and kept the vampire alive long enough to do catastrophic damage to the people for the full eight years with each propaganda shock producing diminishing results as more Americans came to distrust the so called "fourth estate."

[The Backlash Cometh]

15. Love the graphic and the explanation!

[leveymg]

19. The amazing thing was that it was largely a purge. Everyone knew their roles and how to personally

serve the Big Lie without being ordered to do it. It was as much a purge, largely internalized, of critics of authority and independent thinkers as it was a coup. Even after McCarthy, I recall there was once a place for us within major institutions, particularly the media and law.

What America lost that day was what was left of our ability to think critically and independently. We still haven't recovered. It explains a lot about the rapid decline of the United States.

[The Backlash Cometh]

23. It was well thought out.

They attacked their critics quite effectively. The ones who could think critically.

This all had to have its beginnings in a Think Tank, or that Federalist group.

[luv_mykatz]

10. I agree with you, the Backlash Cometh.

9/11 was their cherished opportunity to put forward their agenda.

[Historic NY]

11. terror, fear, terror, fear, colored warnings & alerts...duct tape, anthrax,,,

[WinkyDink]

12. Not to mention Democrats' praise of him (lookin' at you, Joe Biden).

[fishwax]

16. I don't think it's all that unusual for citizens to rally around a leader in times of crisis

Of course, in bush's case I'd put "leader" in quotes, but even so, I don't think it's unusual for a country to rally behind the head of state in a time of crisis, as with FDR after Pearl Harbor. I'm not sure it would have been all that different in other countries either. Canada's Brian Mulroney didn't step down after Flight 182 (though I don't know how his approval ratings faired).

So I don't think Bush's high approval rating from a shocked and frightened country in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 is evidence that 85% of Americans are complete idiots. (I say that having never been among the number who approved of him.)

[Kaleko]

17. Kick

[KG]

20. yes. 85% of Americans are complete idiots.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[global1]

25. There It Is - The Blame Clinton Post - Welcome To Du ....

(sarcasm)

[JHB]

26. Bush de-prioritized counterterrorism and moved resources elsewhere

One can debate what the flaws were in counterterrorism intel gathering and action under Clinton. But it took a definite drop under Bush as they shifted priorities and were very sure that Clinton was overblowing the threat from AQ, at the very time the threads of the plan were coming together. It's in no way hypocritical or unintelligent to put the vast lion's share of the blame for the failure to detect and prevent it on Bush.

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[NNN0LHI]

22. A Democratic president in the same situation would have been impeached and removed within a year

Probably his/her vice president too. Even a lot of Dems would have been calling for it.

Anyone who believes differently is only kidding themselves.

Don

[aikoaiko]

24. What is an example of another country's reaction to an attack making a leader resign?

:shrug:

[Odin2005]

27. It's called "rallying arounf the leader in a time of crisis", it's not odd or uncommon.

:shrug:

[inna]

28. i don't think there was much of a "relationship"; rather, it was a false narrative pushed by corpora

te propaganda

[tblue37]

30. He stood on a pile of rubble, blathering through a bullhorn, and

draping his arm around a fire chief.

And the crowds went wild--because the American media told them that he and Giuliani were responding brilliantly and heroically, though of course that was a dirty lie.

Americans are so gullible and so readily susceptible to propaganda.

[Literate Dragon]

31. I understand it perfectly

Bush was, of course, not directly responsible for the 9/11 attack. We can go back and second-guess how he could have done this, that, or the other that might have prevented it, but you know, stuff happens, and I'm not partisan enough to play that game, any more than I can blame Clinton for the Oklahoma City bombing. We judge the president on how he handles the situation after the fact.

On that score, in the time immediately after the attack, Bush deserves high marks. I remember very well his call for tolerance of Muslims and rejection of blaming all of Islam for the attack at a time when many Americans were going off the deep end about that. I was, myself, a Bush supporter at that point.

The harder thing to explain IMO is the spike in his support after the beginning of the Iraq war. I guess that could have arisen because people were sufficiently fooled by the propaganda. It evaporated quickly enough, though, and this was when he lost my support once and for all.