Bush’s bubble bursts
For almost five years, Bush aides have been effective and efficient in shielding the president from any and all dissent. The president may be aware of the fact that there are some people who disagree with him, but he doesn’t have to see them and — perish the thought — he certainly doesn’t have to answer any of their questions. Ever.
But someone on Bush’s staff apparently made a tragic error over the weekend and the president started taking questions from some young people who hadn’t been pre-screened for ideology, hadn’t signed a loyalty oath, weren’t prepped by a White House advance team, and had questions that the president didn’t care for.
Unfortunately, this occurred in the Netherlands, so it wasn’t Americans who got to ask their president questions, but it was compelling anyway.
“I have a question … concerning the terrorism,” said the first student to be called on, a young woman. “And you made many laws after 9/11, many — many laws and many measures. And I’m wondering, will there be a time when you drop those laws and when you decrease the measures?”
“Look,” Bush replied, “a free society such as ours, obviously, must balance the government’s most important duty, which is to protect the American people from harm, with the civil liberties of our citizens. And every law we passed that was aimed to protect us in this new era of threats from abroad and the willingness for people to kill without mercy has been scrutinized and, of course, balanced by our Constitution.”
Another student asked Bush about the cost of the Iraq war, which is when the funny part happened: reporters were ushered from the room.
Media were then asked to leave, though the meeting, held in a window-lined room at a glorious chateau near Maastricht, went on for another half-hour.
What happened in that other half-hour? American journalists were barred from listening in and — you guessed it — the White House has not released a transcript of the meeting, despite providing transcripts for every single “townhall meeting” and scripted “conservation” Bush has hosted since becoming president.
It’d be hilarious if it weren’t so pathetic. It’s the first time in recent memory the president spoke with people who weren’t pre-screened sycophants, and the moment the Bush team gets nervous about what these students might say, it’s time to start “controlling the message” — which means cutting off the public’s access to the information.
It’s not just that the Bush White House has abandoned any sense of authenticity; the offensive part is, once again, the president needs a bubble to shield him at all times from inconvenient questions and the risk of public embarrassment. The real shame, I suppose, belongs to us: he’s our president.
And we, the taxpayers are paying for this trip, right? Couldn’t just one US reporter protest? Nah. Not with the lame press we have here.
What’s the problem? The President knows what’s best for us. If he doesn’t want us to know…there’s a good reason. Right? We must trust him. He talks to God. Americans don’t have the right to information. The government must keep secrets to protect us. We’re living in the post 9-11 world. Besides, look at all the information we get from the media. Runaway wives, Michael Jackson…its all there…we’re not missing out on anything. I think we need to petition the government to move more aggressively on passing The Patriot Act II. It’s essential to protect the country. And I think we should amend the Constitution, so George Bush can be President again. And I really think that since liberals are so unAmerican and that the Democratic Party is mostly liberals, well…the Democratic Party should be outlawed. We don’t need them. Look at the wonderful job the President and his Party have done in erring on the side of life, on protecting us from terrorist, and look how democracy is blooming in the Middle East.
What a wonderful man. I think he should be President forever.
Was it not old Lenin who affirmed: After the revolution everyone will have strawberries and cream.
But what if I don’t like strawberries?
After the revoulution everyone WILL love strawberries.
Same mindset at work these days in DC…
Surely some of us can use the internets to find out was said. Inquiring minds want to know!
Carpetbagger, if you find some English language links to the press conference would you be so kind as to supply them to your readers.
It truly is amazing. Why doesn’t our press go wild over this. Headlines in all paper’s. I think our press who we keep hearing the Repub’s complain about are all owned bye the repubs. Our goverment is currently preaching democracy for every country but our own. Here we have a dictatorship!
anyone remember the movie cabaret? life was a cabaret my friend, leave your troubles outside! that is just what germans did in the early days of hitler, they went into the cabaret even when the signs of their destruction was all around but they chose the cabaret—–until it was too late to turn back. this is what is happening here and when it is too late you can bet the bush lovers who are now hurt will turn to us PROUD LIBERALS. we stick our necks out and they will reap. talked to a friend of mine(?) who is an evangelical, bush lover and who is looking forward to her social security check. i challenged her to deny that nasty liberal program and offer her starvation for our sins. sge did not know what to say. another proud liberal democrat
made an error, she was not proud liberal. i was singing that way, i am the proud liberal democrat
The so-called Liberal Media strikes again, hunh? How does this lunatic and his obsessive minions get away with it?
Democracy around the world? Try it at home, first…
That settles it. For 4 years I’ve wondered whether the “bubble” was to keep precious Bushie safe from worrying his purty little head about dissent, or if it was simply a PR exercise to create the impression that nobody disagrees with him.
Ushering reporters out of the room? DING! We have a winner– the purpose of this “bubble” isn’t to insulate Shrub, it’s to insulate *us*. It’s propoganda, pure and simple.
And it’s time to stop calling it a “bubble”. That’s a wimpy-ass euphemistic appeasement. What it really is is “disinformation”.
Surely some of those journalists interviewed some of the students afterwards? Surely some of the students blog? Let’s find out! If it weren’t embarassing, the White House wouldn’t be censoring it.
And here I was thinking after reading the horrifying first q + a that that was going to be the main point of the article: that he clearly has no pretense of ever restoring the proper role of government: protecting the rights of the citizenry. Look how he tries to pretend that it is a trade off between protecting us vs. infringing our rights. He basically said the same thing as “in order to protect you, we must take away your rights. The only question is, how much can we strip away in the name of ‘protection’ and still pretend to hide behind the Constitution?”
Then, as if that weren’t bad enough, it goes from worse to worse still. Everyone knows about his poor public presentation skills; that is old news. He couldn’t be more embarrassed than he already is. I think they got rid of the media to hide the truth of what he was saying, which is downright ominous. “We’re taking away your rights for your own good, in order to protect you, and we have no plans to ever give them back”
“Why doesn’t our press go wild over this?”
What investigation has resulted over the ejection of the three “potential disrupters” at a bush Soc.Sec. meeting? Nothing.
Steve Clemons’ posted info on Saturday regarding the heavy handed withholding of NSA documents from the Senate panel overseeing the Bolton nomination. Outrage? Blowback? Zilch.
bush puppeteers in the Netherlands kick out reporters from public interaction without fearing consequences. Instincts confirmed. No consequences.
They figured out in 2000 in Florida what they could get away with. That’s pretty much everything. At this point they could shut down the press briefing room for it’s “much needed remodel” and that would be that.
If even stupid and nonsensical power rears up on it’s hind feet and makes enough noise and threatening gestures, it will get much more than it deserves. The Wizard of Oz is just the squirt behind the curtain but he’s sure got the masses freaked out for the time being.
again it is the war of words. The media is “librial”, and not owned by by a select group of billionaires. Where the hell are our billionaries? We get John Stewart they get everything else?
Jon Stewart, the Comedy Central host had another interesting take. He compared the debate and discussions with the public in Britain (how open they were and any citizen could ask any question) as compared to the US system where the president only meets with his “supporters” even at the so-called town hall meetings. And at every meeting only good words are said about him and anyone who is trying to be a “nuisance” is immediately thrown out.
So are we a democracy?
I wonder how many ordinary people even know about this. They know about Michael Jackson’s trial and rumors regarding whether or not Jennifer No 2 is pregnant.. but not the boring stuff– can’t have that.