Bush No Longer A 'Stay The Course' Guy
CBS's Meyer Eyes The Latest, Greatest Presidential Doublespeak
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President Bush, campaigning for GOP Sen. Mel Martinez (left) and GOP congressional candidate Vern Buchanan (right), fields questions from reporters in Sarasota, Fla., Oct. 24, 2006. (AP Photo/Pool)
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President Bush poses for pictures with members of the audience at a Vern Buchanan for Congress campaign event at Gyrocam Systems, a defense contractor in Sarasota, Fla., Oct. 24, 2006. (AP Photo/Pool)
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White House Press Secretary Tony Snow responds to a reporter's question about Iraq during his White House daily briefing, Oct. 23, 2006. (AP Photo)
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Shiite cleric and militia leader Muqtada al-Sadra prays with his followers in Najaf, Oct. 24, 2006, repeating his call for the expulsion of foreign troops from Iraq and an end to sectarian violence. (AP Photo)
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Iraqi soldiers search a man for weapons at an army checkpoint in Amarah, 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, Oct. 24, 2006. (AP Photo)
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It's official: the Bush administration's "stay the course" was a figment of the American imagination. Never happened. Wasn't our position. Never said it. Wasn't me.
President Bush hinted that he was aware the country was hearing voices on the occasion of his Oct. 11 news conference.
"The characterization of, you know, 'It's 'stay the course' is about a quarter right," he said. " 'Stay the course' means keep doing what you're doing. My attitude is: Don't do what you're doing if it's not working — change. 'Stay the course' also means don't leave before the job is done."
Understand?
The official declaration that "stay the course" never happened came two weeks later. "Listen, we've never been 'stay the course,' George," the president told George Stephanopoulos of ABC News. "We have been — we will complete the mission, we will do our job and help achieve the goal, but we're constantly adjusting the tactics. Constantly."
"Listen, we've never been 'stay the course' ..."
The official Minister of Truth, Tony Snow, codified this latest bit of Bush doctrine the next day.
"So what you have is not 'stay the course,' but, in fact, a study in constant motion by the administration and by the Iraqi government, and, frankly, also by the enemy, because there are constant shifts, and you constantly have to adjust to what the other side is doing … That is not a 'stay the course' policy."
Got it? "Stay the course" = constant motion. Simple. It's as simple as knowing what the meaning of "is" is.
So, when President Bush said in most of his public appearances over the past year or so that America needed to "stay the course" in Iraq, he didn't mean that America needed to "stay the course" in Iraq. In no way was he supporting a "stay the course" policy.
So it must follow that when the president accused the Democrats of wanting to "cut and run" in Iraq, he was not accusing the Democrats of wanting to "cut and run" in Iraq. He must have meant something very different.
And I'm sure Minister Snow will tell us exactly what "cut and run" really means when the administration's next Language and Reality Edict is ready.
This stuff gives doublespeak a bad name.
For three years, President Bush has labeled any worry and criticism about the war in Iraq as cowardly, irresponsible "cut and run" thinking and declared his resolve to "stay the course." That political rhetoric was effective for a long time. But as the political campaign heated up this year, things changed.
The most effective and common type of Democratic advertising has shown bloody pictures, body counts and ominous music over sound bites of the president saying "stay the course" and the candidate saying, no, we need a new course, a new direction.
"Stay the course" became a negative that implied an ostrich-like imperviousness to reality. But the president and his marketing team didn't just dump the slogan; they denied the slogan ever existed.
Because not staying the course with "stay the course" would mean you're a cut-and-runner. Americans aren't cut-and-run guys. Cut-and-run guys aren't resolve guys and the president is a resolve guy.
The audaciousness of this is offensive. Actually, it's insulting.
"Listen, we've never been 'stay the course' ..."
Puh-lease.
It now appears that the electorate has been insulted enough to cut and run on the president.
It's not that we're cut-and-run guys, Mr. President. You just haven't been straight with us.
Dick Meyer is the editorial director of CBSNews.com, based in Washington.
E-mail questions, comments, complaints, arguments and ideas to
Against the Grain. We will publish some of the interesting (and civil) ones, sometimes in edited form.
By Dick Meyer
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Maybe.
But the general trend of all that has happened is clear. George W. Bush and who knows how many people around him and behind him are using "terrorism" as an excuse to turn the United States into an authoritarian state, as your colleague Andrew Cohen has so doggedly documented.
As with 20th Century would be dictators, part of the mechanism for this is known as "the Big Lie".
Those who do not remember history are condemned to relive it.
And this is the President who wants us to trust him!
Those who do not remember history are condemned to relive it.
Zopa108:
Right on the money. Here%u2019s more from the tyrants playbook:
First, make the people afraid. (Even if you have to do something yourself to make them afraid)
Second, find a culprit for the reason they are afraid. (Blame poliltical opponents or those of another race, religion, country, etc.)
Third, make the people hate the culprit that has made them afraid. (Get your media to beat the drum for you)
Fourth, Tell the people you will save them from what has made them afraid (Again, get the media%u2019s help)
Fifth, Tell the people you need special authority to do whatever you need to protect them (Repeal rights, laws, checks to authority, secrecy, etc.)
Sixth, Repeat all the above as needed.
Of course he is not going to say "Stay the course" any longer. He wants to start telling the truth so he'll be saying "Stay the mistake" from now on. Before you blow me off as an arrogant Democrat you should know I'm a long time Republican embarrassed by W. ("Worst?"). Here is one point to prove Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 - all those hijackers could have learned to fly in Iraq. They were almost caught here and that risk would have been eliminated if they had learned to fly there. Granted they wouldn't have state-of-the-art simulators but they would have access to commercial aircraft and then could have used the same documentation that they had obtained to see how the planes differed. So why are we in Iraq? OIL! Don't say WMD as North Korea has them and W. isn't going there (no oil) and don't say demoncracy because there are many other countries as oppressive as Iraq. It won't be long before "I pledge allegience to the flag of the United Sates of Haliburton..."
Makes ya' want to vomit...
I guess they hoped we never listened to any former speeches by gw. You know, if I was a supporter of this guy, I would be insulted by this. He thinks all of America is stupid, everyone!
9/11 Wasn an Inside Job!
Learn the Truth! WTC 7 came down and wasnt hit by a plane. Molten Metal found under ground zero proves demolitions were used, its a scientific fact!
WAKE UP AMERICA!
Do not be a blind nationalist! like CBSCrash 07
Goodness! Did Bush forget to check in with the real presidents to find out what he is supposed to be doing?
Got it--bob and weave, dancing around the issues, dodging questions, deflecting criticism, jumping to conclusions, the hand is quicker than the eye.
Yes, the administration is in constant motion.
You can't fool all the people all the time, but some people can fool themselves forever.
Maybe it's the sheer blatancy of this one. The endless string of video clips of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield, Snow, et al, exhorting us to "Stay the course" is undeniable. Yet there they are again, swearing it's never been about "stay the course."
What's sad is that nobody in the MSM has courage enough to stand up to the president and say "That's not true", as witness today's press conference. In refusing to set the record straight they become collaborators in the lie.
Thank you for speaking the truth here, Mr. Meyer.
Randi Gifford
Camanche, Iowa
Didn't you hear our Glorious Leaders?? They said "you are either with us or against us!! You "don't have the stomach for War" - in the words of our 5-deferment Vice President. How can they "Save Civilization" with all these terrorist sympathizers and traitors running around? How can the vanquish the "Evil Ones"?
No wonder Iraq isn't going so well, it's all these "Cut and Run", "Blame Game" people who have the audacity to hold their elected officials accountable. How seem to have a problem with being LIED into a needless, horrific WAR ON IRAQ.
Why aren't they scared anymore? Red Alert! Red Alert! Fight them over there so we don't have to fight them Here! Mushroom Clouds! Evil Ones are coming! They want to destroy civilization! Be Afraid! Bush will protect you! He is the "War President"
Hey! Come on America, Be Afraid! Ignore the Lies! Hey, you aren't afraid? you are learning the truth?... how come its not working anymore...
Didn't you hear our Glorious Leaders?? They said "you are either with us or against us!! You "don't have the stomach for War" - in the words of our 5-deferment Vice President. How can they "Save Civilization" with all these terrorist sympathizers and traitors running around? How can the vanquish the "Evil Ones"?
No wonder Iraq isn't going so well, it's all these "Cut and Run", "Blame Game" people who have the audacity to hold their elected officials accountable. How seem to have a problem with being LIED into a needless, horrific WAR ON IRAQ.
Why aren't they scared anymore? Red Alert! Red Alert! Fight them over there so we don't have to fight them Here! Mushroom Clouds! Evil Ones are coming! They want to destroy civilization! Be Afraid! Bush will protect you! He is the "War President"
Hey! Come on America, Be Afraid! Ignore the Lies! Hey, you aren't afraid? you are learning the truth?... how come its not working anymore...
The worrisome aspect of all this is dictatorship begins with petty deceit, proceeding directly to damning deceit and overt abuse of power. Bush made every link he could between Iraq and 911, and years later, abruptly protested he never specifically linked the two.
And now, according to Chairman Bush, "timetable" means anything this Red Queen of a politician says it means, neither more nor less. It can mean holding in place, it also can changing and THEN holding any course variation at any time.
Though Bush wasn't in the Navy, even he should be able to understand his concept of "stay the course" is wrong, not to mention flatly illogical. The outrage is Bush fully aware of his deceit, and still believes he is not widely seen as the consumate opportunist he always has been. The low cunning of this Prevaricator in Chief endangers the very democracy he claims to defend.
Bush changes the tagline and you scream hypocrite. There are others on this website who claim the MSM doesn't challenge President Bush. How in the world can you write that, much less say that, with a straight face? You guys revel in having a "reporter" push back at Bush in a news conference, yet freak out when a candidate walks over to Hillary and "invades her space!"
You scream at Rush Limbaugh for commenting on Michael J. Fox's "commercial," yet you see nothing wrong with George Clooney making fun of Charlton Heston's alzheimers?
It really is amazing how irrelevant the MSM has become. Go ahead and report the slanted news.... I've already read the straight story hours, if not days ago.
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by wskowalski
October 28, 2006 1:04 PM PDT
- amen and kudos to cbsisajoke. Ain't that the truth - although CBS is hardly the only example, as we all know.
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See all 34 CommentsWhat outstanding journalism this column represents, Mr. Meyer - you should be proud of your work and your insight, and no doubt CBS should double your salary for this fine example of excellent and truly relevant analysis. HA!!!!!
You pathetic liberal hypocites need to get over your unbelieveable, unending anger over 2000 - and for once in your lives look beyond your own narrow viewpoints and hatreds, to realize that there is really a force and group of people out there that want to destroy us....and that dealing with them is real, grownup work that takes real, grownup responsibility and attention. Which is why you and all like you are not now, and never will be again, fit to govern this nation. Chew on that.
WS Kowalski