| Best of the Sunday Times | | Date Created: Oct 17, 2004, 09:56 PM |
 Some must-read material in the Sunday New York Times today. The magazine has a lengthy but revealing piece on what drives President Bush's confidence and certainty. According to the piece, Bush has a faith-based presidency, in which the president puts his "gut" above facts and believes it to be inspiration from God.
According to Bruce Bartlett, a former official in the Reagan and the first George Bush administration, ''He truly believes he's on a mission from God. Absolute faith like that overwhelms a need for analysis."
''I trust God speaks through me," the piece quotes Bush telling Amish farmers three months ago.
Among the examples of Bush's stubbornness, an Oval Office meeting in which he mistakenly held to the belief that Sweden (not Switzerland) was a neutral country without a military force.
The article portrays a tightly-controlled administration in which open discussion is discouraged and anyone questioning the president is deemed a traitor. |
 Another must-read piece is by columnist Frank Rich that compares the George W. Bush's first term as president to the first term of Richard Nixon. I found similar comparisons when doing research for my doctoral dissertation.
Those comparisons center on:
- The secretive nature of the two administrations
- Both administrations' approach to punishing and vilifying journalists
Rich predicts that if there is a second Bush term that it will end with similar consequences to those that ended Nixon's second term.
There's also a front-page story on the negative advertising in the closing days of this election year and how those ads are meant to induce fear. The piece asserts that the last election with ads that evoked such fear was in 1964.
And two campaign stories of interest. First, the continuing controversy over John Kerry bringing up Mary Cheney in the final debate, in response to a question about homosexuality. Mary Cheney is a lesbian and her father had already discussed her publicly. Nevertheless, the Bush-Cheney campaign is shocked -- shocked that Senator Kerry had done the same.
Finally, the story that won't go away. The White House still can't escape talk and news stories about the "bubble" and the "bulge." The bubble refers to the atmosphere the president has lived in during these past four years, in which he is not challenged, not subjected to news conferences, and which led to his poor debate performance. The bulge refers to the bulge seen in the back of Bush's coat in all three debates. Rumor is it was some sort of radio that transmitted answers to the president through a hidden earpiece. It started as an internet rumor, but the White House continues to field questions on it.
Earlier:
Debate postmortem (October 14, 2004)
Bush "most vindictive" since Nixon (April 9, 2004) |
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