Desperately Seeking Swagger

[rodeodance]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/09/26/BL2005092600717.html?referrer=email



Desperately Seeking Swagger

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, September 26, 2005; 5:41 PM


Two major stories over the weekend suggest that a series of false steps, followed by accusations of incompetence and growing public disapproval, have left President Bush and his aides with their confidence badly shaken.

And in a big change as far as the press coverage of the president is concerned, aides and allies whose loyalty to Bush once precluded even the slightest public acknowledgement of any weakness anywhere in his White House appear to have lost some of their inhibitions -- at least on background.

Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker write in Saturday's Washington Post: "A president who roamed across the national and world stages with an unshakable self-assurance that comforted Republicans and confounded critics since 2001 suddenly finds himself struggling to reclaim his swagger. Bush's standing with the public -- and within the Republican Party -- has been battered by a failed Social Security campaign, violence in Iraq, and most recently Hurricane Katrina. His approval ratings, 42 percent in the most recent Washington Post-ABC poll, have never been lower.

"A president who normally thrives on tough talk and self-assurance finds himself at what aides privately describe as a low point in office, one that is changing the psychic and political aura of the White House, as well as its distinctive political approach. . . .

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. Personally, if he stopped swaggering

I could stop throwing up and watch the tv when he is on.

[opihimoimoi]

2. The price of Arrogance is humility...usually after the FALL

[electropop]

7. "Valerie Plame case is indeed hanging over the White House like a pall"

And Fitzgerald will be the lead pall-bearer. RIP, BFEE.

[Arkansas Granny]

10. I don't know. Even without the swagger, you'll still have the smirk.

[smirkymonkey]

16. Nothing a good, swift smack couldn't take care of.

[electropop]

3. "second-guessing how they handled the Social Security debate, managed ..."

"... the public perception of the Iraq war and, most recently, the response to Katrina..."

This is why it's all falling apart. While they are busy trying to figure how they have mismanaged public perception, they ignore their mismanagement of the nation. You can't "manage public perception" to make people see multiple massive failures as success. Not forever. The jig is up.

[rodeodance]

5. mishandling 'perceptions"--geesh!! people died/dying!

[Democrats_win]

4. Poor performance suspends swaggar.

He can't erase the truth, he's squandered 4.5 years.

[jobycom]

6. He had no swagger except what the media gave him

Now the media is taking it away. Bush is an empty cup that the media poured a cartoon character into.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

8. Let's get real

he has a miniscule pee-pee.

[Arkansas Granny]

11. Don't you remeber that line from his 2004 acceptance speech?

"Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas is called "walking." "

Regardless who gave it to him, he's proud of it and has accentuated it.

[jobycom]

12. He's just trying to imitate John Wayne

That's what's behind the phoney accent and the corn-cob walk. In 90 he was a pencil-neck wimp with an Ivy league accent. They had him consciously imitate John Wayne, and that's where he gets it from. Watch F-9/11, in the clip where Bush in 92 talks about having access to his father. He has none of the later persona he puts on.

Pure media creation.

[Arkansas Granny]

13. Are you saying that he's been "roved"?

[jobycom]

14. You know, there have been rumors...

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you meant... Oh, never mind! :blush:

[Arkansas Granny]

15. Well, you have to admit the possibility.

[AndyTiedye]

9. More Stagger than Swagger Nowadays

the pRez has fallen off the wagon.

I just dropped "fallen off the wagon" into Google, and guess what came up?

http://www.nationalenquirer.com/celebrity/63426
BUSH'S BOOZE CRISIS

By JENNIFER LUCE and DON GENTILE

Faced with the biggest crisis of his political life, President Bush has hit the bottle again, The National Enquirer can reveal.

Bush, who said he quit drinking the morning after his 40th birthday, has started boozing amid the Katrina catastrophe.

Family sources have told how the 59-year-old president was caught by First Lady Laura downing a shot of booze at their family ranch in Crawford, Texas, when he learned of the hurricane disaster.

His worried wife yelled at him: "Stop, George."

Following the shocking incident, disclosed here for the first time, Laura privately warned her husband against "falling off the wagon" and vowed to travel with him more often so that she can keep an eye on Dubya, the sources add.
<snip>

[opihimoimoi]

17. The WANNABEE JOCK Fumbles AGAIN????

ARRRRHHGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH