FRAMESHOP:FRAMESHOP: 'CHANGE' IS THE 'COURSE
STOP THE PRESSES! President Bush's Press Secretary, Tony Snow, just announced that while the policy on Iraq had not changed, the slogan the President uses to describe the situation had changed. If we listen closely, the President is no longer...
STOP THE PRESSES! President Bush's Press Secretary, Tony Snow, just announced that while the policy on Iraq had not changed, the slogan the President uses to describe the situation had changed. If we listen closely, the President is no longer saying "stay the course" when talking about Iraq, but is now saying...er...something else:
SNOW THE JOB: White House dumps its old "stay the course" slogan, but the Iraq policy stays on the same deadly path.
Q Tony, it seems what you have is not "stay the course." Has anybody told the President he should stop calling it "stay the course" then?
MR. SNOW: I don't think he's used that term in a while.
Q Oh, yes, he has, repeatedly.
MR. SNOW: When?
Q Well, in August, because I wrote a story saying he didn't use it and I was quite sternly corrected.
MR. SNOW: No, he stopped using it.
Q Why would he stop using it?
MR. SNOW: Because it left the wrong impression about what was going on. And it allowed critics to say, well, here's an administration that's just embarked upon a policy and not looking at what the situation is, when, in fact, it's just the opposite. The President is determined not to leave Iraq short of victory, but he also understands that it's important to capture the dynamism of the efforts that have been ongoing to try to make Iraq more secure, and therefore, enhance the clarification -- or the greater precision.
Q Is the President responsible for the fact people think it's stay the course since he's, in fact, described it that way himself?
MR. SNOW: No.
So, the real battle the President is fighting is the war of "impressions," apparently. What Bush is now reaching for is an Iraq slogan that captures the 'dynamism of the efforts.'
Dynamism? Actually, the word President Bush is using--and will probably repeat a thousands times over the next two weeks--is 'change.' It's funny, too. Because President Bush will be using the word 'change' to describe his policy in Iraq as part of his attempts to raise money for Republican election campaigns--almost as if he is saying,"Our policy in Iraq is about 'change,' now can you spare some change for a down-and-out mid-term campaign?"
But wait and see how surreal this one gets. Tony Snow and President Bush are actually going to attempt to sell the American people on the idea that the White House policy in Iraq has always been about change.
Did you follow that? Here's the basic logic President Bush will try to foist on the public:
[always the same] is [constant change]
The American people should not be surprised to be treated to this kind of double-speak by their Repeater-in Chief. President Bush has been trying to define "failure" as "success" for years, now. And boy is he succeeding...I mean failing...oh, what's the difference.
© 2006 Jeffrey Feldman, Frameshop
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