I’m told that Rush Limbaugh, once upon a time, entertained more than just standard electoral politics on his show. He did an entire on the latest Peter Gabriel release sometime in the late 80s / early 90s.

Or so I’m told.

Then again, I’m also told that Rush Limbaugh was (if you can believe it) further to the right then he is now. The theory here goes that once he was given a perch into the RNC establishment, he necessarily adapted himself to fit into… the RNC establishment.

Tom Leykis’s show, once upon a time, dealt with various cultural mores, and politics of a type. Various sources tell me that. My father even listened in, at times. Today it’s almost entirely t and a talk. The ratings were Tom Leykis’s guidepost.

Opposing directions.

Which brings us to the current Howard Stern Show.

I don’t listen to Howard Stern. But I have a roommate who has, on occassion, chimed in… and so I’ve overheard his show a small handful of times.

He’s become prone to… ranting and raving against the Bush Administration.

Ever since his troubles with the FCC and his troubles with Clear Channel.

His politics before had leaned itself toward “Moderate Republican.” He approved of Christine Todd Whitman, Rudy Guiliana (after a momentary run for mayor as a Libertarian.) And he was, by all accounts, pro- Iraq War… or at least anti-anti-war.

Now he’s preaching the anti-Bush gospel.

Self-serving as his political transformation is, and my guess is it’s a rather temporal change. He’s throwing out his frustrations at one figurehead, moving beyond Michael Powell.

He’ll be back to chatting about porn star’s boobs soon enough… probably still is.

For an administration who has been creepily adept at image-management, the Bush Administration has really left some off-putting misfires — both planned images that just grew or potentially may grow absurd and images with his guard thrown down …

#1: “Mission Accomplished” may well be the “Read My Lips. No New Taxes” of the Bush II administration.

#2: This is self-parody. Can Bush’s “good old boy” image hold him through in these troubled times, against the “intellectual elitists” charicature of “puppet master” Cheney with “dis-engaged” Bush? (And remember: it’s David Frum who says that Bush couldn’t pass a test on his cabinet.) It’s the puzzling aspect of American politics.

#3: This juxtaposition is almost irresistable for caricature. August 6, 2001: The memo released August 6, 2001: “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States’. August 7, 2001: Bush Starts Month-Long Vacation in Crawford.

Which, mind ye, he’s back in Crawford yet again.

Though, politically the opposition party must tread carefully … frame the issue tightly. If it weren’t for the fact that this was “The Summer of Threats”, I’d be right there with that volcanic focus group.

Which leads us to:

#4: What happened here? I suppose the man was paralyzed, perhaps in the denial stage– understandably so I may add… but it is… the creepy footage.

#5: The New York Convention, politically scheduled location and time, may well backfire. A nation’s mood can sometimes change rather rapidly. The convention time and place was pretty well set after the successful 2002 mid-term elections, where the aura of National Defense propelled the RNC to success. Two years later, the image, predictably enough, may just leave a bad taste in the “swing voter’s” mouth. Mind ye… the operative word here is may.

And on the “may” note: Maybe Kerry is opening up a few bad images hisownself. His “Misery Index” does smack a bit of Jimmy Carter’s “National Malaise” (as pontificated by the hired hack chatterers), with the important difference being: Jimmy Carter was talking about his own administration. — Nonetheless, unless he can navigate “That Vision Thing” for Kerry Administration to pursue as a counter to this Bush Adminstration up-tik on the “Misery Index”, it reinforces the image of “Moody, Pessimist” — and Bush can pump up his “Turning the Corner” rhetoric.

This post is an example of why political strategy analysis must die…

I like Chinese…

Quick footnotes of some of the following quotations. Take the first one for example: Thomas Friedman (like him or, as I will, lump him) finished a typical Friedmanesque editorial with the astute ” In that case, we will have to move to Plan B. Too bad we never really had Plan A.” Take the second one… destroy the village to save the village. Take the third quote… History is prologue. Take the fourth one: refresh your memory with three stupid words: “Bring It On”. Take the fifth quote: Maybe a cheap shot, but go ahead and google the term “Chicken-hawk.” Take the sixth quote: Did the powers that be even bother weighing into their considerations the consequence of shutting down that stupid newspaper?

#1: The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple where the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.
…………

#2: Do not interfere with an army that is returning home. When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.
……….

#3: If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete.
………

#4: No leader should put troops into the field merely to gratify his own spleen; no leader should fight a battle simply out of pique. But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being; nor can the dead ever be brought back to life. Hence the enlightened leader is heedful, and the good leader full of caution.
……….

#5: It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on.
…………..

#6: Move not unless you see an advantage; use not your troops unless there is something to be gained; fight not unless the position is critical. If it is to your advantage, make a forward move; if not, stay where you are. Anger may in time change to gladness; vexation may be succeeded by content.
……………

The Senate Republicans that face challenging races in 2006, for the sake of their Senate careers, are hoping that John Kerry wins. And it works the same way for the Democrats, since Bush will likely implode after a 2004 victory…

No. Strike that. Because even if they lose, they’d easily find their way into powerful lobbying jobs, which is where the real action is.

If Clinton, or for that matter Gore, had been the one rumping us to war in Iraq, the Democrats would more or less fall in line (even further during, and not run estranged after), and there would be more Republican dissension.

But, the nature of the foreign policy debate more or less bunches itself up with the Lugar-Biden axis being the “moderate center”.

Where does this get us?

I once read speculation that if President Johnson had picked Eugene McCarthy for veep, as was on his shortlist, we’d have had McCarthy as the pro-war establishment candidate in 1968 and Humphrey would’ve weaved his way into the anti-war establishment.

New slogans instead of “Clean for Gene” and “Dump the Hump” would’ve had to have been made.

This goes back to how upstanding a citizen Bob Kennedy was… look carefully to what he was up to with his buddy Joe McCarthy.

Occasionally I have to ponder how these things travel around through cyberspace, and what bumpy speedbumps allow them to reach some people at some times, and other people at later times…

The last item that had me with this question came when I started noticing Biking Through Chernobyl seemingly everywhere. What high-volume website linked to that?

Which, I guess, is part of the question that meme project is trying to unravel.

Atrios linked this.

I’ve seen this before. Over a year ago. I think from the somewhat sketcy informationclearinghouse, which I read regularly.

Well… actually, I breeze over it, take a general tone of what disparate sources are saying, and read when something strikes me as relevant. Much as I breeze over, say, The Oregonian. Headline writers, take heed, as always.

I’m struck, though. Atrios never came across this before?

Beyond the creeping feeling of either incompetence or of misplaced priorities, which is blazened more from Condi Rice’s 2002 statement on the matter of planes as missiles…

the more conspiracy-minded (I do have the Alex Jones weblogs pieced together in a folder in my bloglines compendium) take it to mean… the government… did it.

Or, maybe even…, well, the Murdoch owned outlet had a headline designed to sell papers.

… one of the rare instances when a NY Post headline received more credence from the left than from the right (How do you think this headline went over under this dichometical rubric?

The bizarre Condi Rice quotation, “I don’t think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon, that they would try to use an airplane as a missile.” feeds into this shallow graveyard of conspiratorial bliss as much as it’d feed into the more subdued explanations…

Start with the question Why did Condi say that?

And the dots may get connected in a rather haphazard manner… Some dots that are off the screen get connected to dots that are dead center…

Alas,
Odd dots.

From out of Mad Cow Country comes this view, representing many I suppose:

“I would like if there was a better challenger for Bush,” said Justin Tucker, a 21-year-old college student from Prosser, Wash., who supports the president. “I just don’t believe in ripping the president out of office during a war on terror – especially to replace him with Kerry. Who knows what Kerry’s going to do?”

I don’t know. What would Kerry do?

Bush leads an expedition of men from the tv show Fishing With Rolan Martin to show off his ranch’s fishin’ holes.

I just don’t know if Kerry’s ability to drive a Harley Davidson onto Jay Leno’s set can compete with that.

These are tough questions that need to be answered.

…
Update: Roland Martin says he caught a big fish. And, Bush is cutting his fishing expedition with his dad and Roland Martin short to focus on… you know… Iraq.