A Moment
by digby
Suzanne Malveaux of CNN just compared President Bush's appearance today at Virginia Tech to his famous "bullhorn moment" where he allegedly brought the country together after 9/11.
John, you may recall that what was called the "bull horn moment" when the president shortly after 9/11 stood on that pile of rubble and called out and really united the country at that moment, firefighters and others who recognized that that was a very significant moment for the country. This is again one of those moments Don, where a lot of people are looking at this wondering, you know this could have been my son or daughter...
Ugh. The bullhorn scene was not a "healing moment" in tragedy. It was a war cry, a far different thing. It did not bring the country together --- virtually the entire world was united after 9/11. Within months Bush's policies, especially the preposterous invasion of Iraq, began to tear the country apart and made us loathed throughout much of the world. God, I hope this isn't one of "those moments" because his track record is just terrible.
I think it's appropriate for the president to appear there today, it's in nearby Virginia, and it's a national tragedy. But the only slightly political dimension you can find in this is guns, which have been taken off the table as a political issue, (although gun owners have achieved their agenda so thoroughly that they now seem to be lobbying to actually require people to be armed at all times and shoot first and ask questions later.) I suppose that there will undoubtedly be some immigrant bashing too.
But from what we know now, we seem to be dealing with a crazy man and there's nothing the president can say about that or do about that other than speak for the people as its leader and express our sorrow. For Malveaux to evoke Bush's famous bullhorn moment is fluffing of the highest order. (She seems to have developed some sort of Stockholm Syndrome lately, so it's not surprising.) But it would behoove the White House to keep a low profile on this and not encourage such talk. The country has had quite enough of the Bush administration trying to raise its approval rating on the backs of dead people.
Update: Apparently this is a common theme among the DC press corps.
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