The publicists of George W. Bush‘s memoir, Decision Points, have not put me on their distro list so I don’t yet have the book. I may wait until it gets really cheap on Amazon’s used bookseller list, but in the mean time, i leafed through a copy that someone on my Abu Dhabi bound plane had.
I saw this passage that just seemed to be part of Bush’s typical reckless swagger:
In 2000, our October Surprise had come in the form of the DUI revelation. In 2004, it came from Osama bin Laden. On October 29, the al Qaeda leader released a videotape threatening Americans with “another Manhattan” and mocking my response to 9/11 in the Florida classroom. It sounded like he was plagiarizing Michael Moore. “Americans will not be intimidated or influenced by an enemy of our country,” I said. John Kerry made a similar statement of resolve.
W’s easy slide into comparing policy activist Michael Moore to Osama bin Laden is really gross and demonstrates how little George W. Bush ultimately respected the rights of American citizens to question their leaders and yes, to doubt their own government and its course in the aftermath of 9/11. Bush and Vice President Cheney did more to undermine the system of checks and balances in the US government than any other leadership team in modern American history.
I think that the work Michael Moore does is vital and helps the nation see beyond what a homogenized political and media culture feed it.
George W. Bush wasn’t all bad, and I really do need to read and review the book, but he was bad in too many ways. This Michael Moore/Osama bin Laden slime helps to remind of much that Bush got wrong.
I learned that Michael Moore will be on Larry King Live and Real Time with Bill Maher tomorrow and will be interesting to know if this comes up.
— Steve Clemons
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