The Image Cropper
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…