The Fictional President
Would have been a better title for Bill Sammon’s new book than The Evangelical President.
Mind you, I didn’t actually read the thing, let alone buy it, but I did look at the covers and the flaps, which contained these reality-altering takes on President Bush:
“. . . through it all, Sammon shows that President Bush took the high road, fighting to spread moral democracy around the world while the low-minded press focused on Vice President Cheney’s accidental shooting of a friend while hunting and Virginia senator George Allen’s use of the word macaca on the campaign trail.”
Because, you know, because the press should be focused on spinning Bush’s failures as successes, instead of on Cheney shooting a guy in the face and avoiding the cops ’til he sobered up, or on a senator using a racial slur.
Then there is this gem:
“How the media has continuously underestimated President Bush, mocking him for his faith and ignoring his achievements.”
His achievements, like the spread of “moral democracy” in Iraq, you see.
And this thrilling summation from the back flap:
“The Evangelical President is an unforgettable glimpse of a president at war, supported by an evangelical belief that tyranny should be overthrown, democracy supported, and America defended, combined with a steely stubbornness to see these goals through.”
Not to mention supported by a fantastic rightwing propaganda machine comprised of boot-licking lunatics like Sammon (who prominently blew President Bush at a press conference recently, offering up the softball question about MoveOn’s Petreaus ad), and corporate disinformation machines like FauxNews, the Moonie Times, and Regnery Publishing, which published this tripe.
As for the steely stubbornness, it seems more like the deer-frozen-in-the-headlights thing we saw on 9/11 as the President read The Pet Goat after being told “Mr. President, the nation is under attack.”
My pleasure. I was going to do a more in-depth analysis of Sammon’s excerpts, but my diabetes kicked in after the second round of treacly smarm.
[...] needs softball questions tossed by professional fluffers like Steve Sammon when you can just have actual government-paid lackies ask the questions: FEMA has truly learned [...]