I don’t know about you, but I’m glad our president is from a state like Texas. I’ve read numerous accounts of George Bush’s “swagger.” In my opinion, this is something only an insecure man would have a problem with. After all, why would a real man begrudge another man’s swagger?
That’s what I was thinking about when I read Paul Krugman’s column in the New York Times (reg. req.). He writes:
Let’s face it: whatever happens in Thursday’s debate, cable news will proclaim President Bush the winner. This will reflect the political bias so evident during the party conventions. It will also reflect the undoubted fact that Mr. Bush does a pretty good Clint Eastwood imitation.
But what will the print media do? Let’s hope they don’t do what they did four years ago.
Interviews with focus groups just after the first 2000 debate showed Al Gore with a slight edge. Post-debate analysis should have widened that edge. After all, during the debate, Mr. Bush told one whopper after another — about his budget plans, about his prescription drug proposal and more. The fact-checking in the next day’s papers should have been devastating.
I don’t know about the “Bush lied” routine, but Krugman sounds a little envious because he knows his guy is an elitist patrician from New England who can’t possibly match Bush in manliness, at least in the opinion of the American people (and me). I’m a little suspicious of a man who whines about the potency of another man’s attributes.
Krugman scribbles on about “body language” becoming the deciding factor in who’ll win the debate between Bush and Kerry. Remember one of the debates in 2000 where Gore walked up to Bush and stood practically in his face, and Bush looked him up and down and nodded “Hello”, and the audience laughed? I hope John Kerry does that, too.
The liberal is psyching himself up for “cable news” declaring Bush the winner. If he’s talking about FOX, maybe, but other channels? CNN?
So Krugman rambles on about the “unnecessary war” in Iraq. He knows Kerry is unpopular, even among the people who plan to vote for him, so he’s preparing himself for the inevitable criticism of the New Englander’s stiff performance.
In an effort to be “fair and unbiased”, I’ll listen to the debate on the radio. I wouldn’t want George Bush’s “swagger” to distract me and remind me how glad I am he’s running the country.
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Bush on Kerry’s flip flops on the war in Iraq: “He could probably spend 90 minutes debating himself.”
Myster Pollster (there are all sorts of bloggers out here!) has a pre-debate poll analysis.
See a pre-debate poll analysis at Mystery Pollster.
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Interesting take on swagger. As much as I enjoy Clint, the swagger and the tight lipped smile remind me of John Travolta. That first two minutes of “Saturday Night Fever” was a swagger that defined it all. Then there was “Look into my eyes, I own you” Maybe we will see that on Thursday night?
Too bad Krugman doesn’t talk about the lack of fact checking Kerry on Swifties:
In Cambodia at Christmas, 1968? (Kerry Lied)
Wounded by the enemy for first PH on Dec. 2? (Nope, Kerry Lied)
Were US soldiers committing “war crimes … as a matter of policy”? (Nope, Kerry Lied)
Fact check, publicize — Yes! The truth, not PC Bush-hate press spin (like Krugman), is exactly why Kerry is losing. He’s a flip flopping liar.
I also seem to recall Al Gore creating people out of thin air to emphasize his points. Fact Check indeed.
just discovered you. great blog! i’ve “dragged your heart” elsie
Gore looked like a stiff and blowhard. He lost the debates becuase he was argumentative and rude…not to mention his policy talk was way too arrogant.
Krugman is a known distorter of facts. Why else would a major publication have to run a weekly column known as the Krugman Truth Squad?
James,
Don’t forget his tobacco tale, where he devoted his life to stopping the evil weed that killed his sister. He vowed at her bedside to stop big tobacco. After growing it for a few more years after her death, he got around to that.
Didn’t Clinton say he remembered seeing black churches burn?
Wow its been four years and Krugman still hasn’t figured out that Bush won the 2000 debates? That doesn’t bode well for the Kerry camps strategy this year.
Talk about swagger envy. Krugman has a problem with anyone on the right displaying confidence. I’d rather see someone swagger than lurch towards their destination. As for imitation of Clint, maybe Clint does a good imitation of what Texans do naturally.
Personally, my eyes will be glued to the set as it’ll be amusing to watch sKerry do his herky-jerky jig in imitation of the TV-preacherman-tetched-wid-de-spirit
I don’t want to split hairs, but isn’t it just a little bit incongruous to call GWB a Texan? His family is ‘old money’, he was born in New England, and though he moved to Texas at an early age he attended a prep school in Massachussets. That doesn’t sound very Texan!
The swagger is, in my nvho, nothing more than a carefully created image.
There’s plenty of transplanted Texans. Texas can also be a state of mind. Texans also have a few choice words to describe folks who moved and “live” in Texas, but haven’t really moved in spirit, “Yankee” for starters.
How finely should we split hairs? People who immigrate to the US and become citizens are Americans regardless of where they hailed from. Ultimately we’re all immigrants, American Indians included.
“The swagger is, in my nvho, nothing more than a carefully created image.”
Richard Hall, hahaha, that is so funny. Yeah, I can just imagine President Bush standing in front of a large mirror walking back and forth practicing his pseudo texan “swagger” with those personal aides coaching him and telling him, “yup, that will win you the White House and earn you kuddles of macho respect from folks everywhere around the country.”
And about GWB being a Texan, I guess one has to be born and raised in Texas for a least 7 generations to be labeled a Texan. So skerry isn’t a Bostonian either cus he wasn’t born in Mass.
It’s normal for Paul Krugman and the NYT’s to look down on a cowboy, after all they love the “girly-man” type of guy.
“elitist patrician from New England who can’t possibly match Bush in manliness, at least in the opinion of the American people (and me)”
Plenty of people think dubya is also a new-england blue blood, son of the same new england schools as kerry. In fact, he’s got the more elite harvard over kerry’s boston college. But facts aren’t meant to get in the way of myths and stereotypes.
“Richard Hall, hahaha, that is so funny. Yeah, I can just imagine President Bush standing in front of a large mirror walking back and forth practicing his pseudo texan “swagger””
He learned that those new england ways don’t play well in texas when he lost his first political campaign.
actus, remember to chew well before you swallow that. and wash it down with your koolaide. that will hit the spot just right, guarenteed.
George Bush was born a blueblood New Englander, and spent his early years in the dissipative pursuits of the members of that tribe who have nothing to do. (Blueblood New Englanders have contributed a lot to this country, but not all of them are so responsible — like other groups.)
When he decided to turn his life around and become a contributor, he was living in the middle of a culture that differed greatly from his native one and put a premium on self-confidence growing from responsible behavior. So he adopted that culture and the outward symbols of it, not because it is “better” in any objective sense but because it’s different — and to a man trying to change his life, it’s important to be in proximity of symbols different from what he had known previously.
He still doesn’t have the Texas twang down all that well, but he projects the rest of it very nicely in the opinion of this Texas native. The “swagger” is simply the natural walk of a man who is certain of his center and confident of his own strength. It is, in fact, the way my neighbors walk, and perhaps I do as well (I rarely watch myself.) If you find it offensive, I pity you your accustomed cringe.
Regards,
Ric Locke
Jack has got to be running out of material. This article is soooo juvenile. Someone please pass him a tissue.
little bit incongruous to call GWB a Texan
The Bush family has been official residents of Texas for over 50 years…..part of that time living around the corner from me. I think 50+ years qualifies one to take the title of Texan.
Richard,
I am a Texan… I was born in Oklahoma but as we TEXANS are fond of saying, I got here as soon as I could. that means 1942, I was 6 years old. Nobody would call me an OKIE and get by with it now. And even at my age, an old lady, I like his swagger!
It is real, it is Texan through and through. And so is his accent. We don’t sound like southeners unless we come from east Texas, GWB is from WEST TEXAS. Good Grief Charlie Brown, give it a break.
Manly? Think The Bird Cage.
don’t know about the “Bush lied” routine, but Krugman sounds a little envious because he knows his guy is an elitist patrician from New England who can’t possibly match Bush in manliness, at least in the opinion of the American people (and me).
The patrician was on a boat dodging real bullets, even though he only received “minor” injuries. What dream world do you live in where a born again recovered alcoholic whose wild childhood (his words) ended at 40. In may part of the country those guys are called rummies, in some states they call them governor.
Ruth & Richard,
Heck, many of us Texans from less “rigorous” climates are willing to grant an extra year’s Texas residency credit for every year spent in Midland or Odessa! And triple points for marrying a Texan. Especially one like Laura Bush. I’ll never forget the look on his face when he said in New York, “And we love our First Lady!” And the return look in her eyes was priceless. There’s a bumper sticker that says, “I wasn’t born in Texas, but I got here as quick as I could.” That pretty much says it for me.
hehehe.
Here’s a question to bonafide Texans: Can I still refer to myself as a Texan, albeit expatriated Texan? IIRC, I wasn’t banished nor exiled, didn’t ever renounce the Yellow Rose, I’m just residing amongst furriners.
I got there as quick as I could, stayed as long as I could. Although for the past decade plus, I’ve been away, I still dream of Texas — particularily East Texas and DFW.
I also had a younger brother and sister follow me there and they’re staying put. And even all my best friends live in Texas.
Long live the Lone Star State!!
Andy- you know the drill. Texas is a state of mind. Come home when you can! Bush ROCKS!
Sniff, sniff… Aw shucks, right-thinking Texans wuv me
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