In case you haven't noticed, there is an election this year. D'oh! Even though I post quite a bit of news about Iraq, this administration's lies, and 9/11, I do think about the upcoming election rather a lot. For the sake of this post, let's assume that the votes will be counted accurately. (ha.ha.) Right now, in April, most of the "talking heads" think that it will be a very close race. At this point, that may be the case. But, who knows what this American life will look like come November?

I had a discussion with my father this weekend, and he believes that our President is stupid. I had to disagree with him. I do not believe that the man is stupid, but that is ignorant (adj., Lacking education or knowledge. Showing or arising from a lack of education or knowledge. Unaware or uninformed) and incurious (adj., Lacking intellectual inquisitiveness or natural curiosity; uninterested) when it comes to most subjects. But I think he has great political skill and knows how to use this to his advantage. Here is an interesting interview with the author of The Bush Dyslexicon: Notes on a National Disorder which talks about this subject in detail.

His "stupidity" is a tool which is used to make the sheeple think that the President is like them. His mispronunciation of words like "nookular" and the "war on tara" are purposefully done to humanize him. The sheeple start bleating, "see even the President is stupid like me". Then, when the SCLM attacks him, the White House will say look at those elitists attacking the poor President and attacking you as well. They also hide behind this "stupid" persona. Whenever something goes wrong, they imply that decisions are made elsewhere and that the President was not told about it -- this is a classic Reagan/Iran-Contra move. The "stupidity" ploy is also used by the administration so that his potential is underestimated, especially by those of you watching from home. He is the master of low expectations. That's how they used it during the 2000 election. See if this sounds familiar:

W. was not going to debate Gore. The press put pressure on the Bush campaign and they flip-flopped and accepted debates. Then as the debates neared, all the press would talk about was what a good debater Gore was and that Bush would be lucky to survive. This made Gore's task impossible and if Bush was able to keep breathing through the debate he would come out OK. When Gore came out in the first debate attacking Bush, he was portrayed--in the so-called liberal media--as mean. But from what I remember, in a debate you are supposed to lay waste to your opponent's arguments -- which Gore did -- not make it look good for the cameras. Oh, I'm sorry; I forgot: it's not what happened that counts it's what the pundits perceived happened that counts.

So as I see the current state of affairs, things at this point look good for Kerry. But imagine the opposite of everything that is bad now: Massive death and chaos in Iraq turns into relative calm by November. Highest gas prices ever decrease significantly by November. Unemployment significantly decreases by November. During the "press conference" last week Bush started co-opting the Kerry/UN Iraq strategy.

Things look horrible now. What happens if they look considerably better in six months? In November, all the books will have been out for a long time. Who is going to remember all this in six months? Richard who? Dick Clark? You mean the guy that does the New Year's Eve specials? The 9/11 commission? That sounds vaguely familiar. Master of low expectations. Stupidity defense. There is a line from the movie The Big Chill that fits this situation pretty good. Jeff Goldblum's character writes for a Time/Newsweek -type magazine and says, "As a general rule we can't write anything longer than the average crap". Suffice it to say that the election is further away than the time it takes for the average crap.
- posted by Mom/Dad @ 11:52 AM