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September 1, 2006

"Listen. I'm Not Joking. This Is My Job!"

eading about the president's speech to the American Legion convention and his reaction to Iran's refusal to compromise on the U.N. deadline to stop enriching uranium reminded me of that scene in Animal House when the pot-smoking Prof. Jennings -- played by Donald Sutherland -- stands in front of a classroom full of indifferent freshmen studying John Milton, insisting that they take both Milton and him seriously, especially Jennings' decision that they write a term paper. (Jennings is their "Decider.")

President Bush sounds a lot like the fictional (but fun) Jennings. And the world is now that freshman class, indifferent to his lectures on right and wrong. It's not that what he says about fighting terrorists in the streets of Baghdad ('cause we've lost the rest of Iraq) so we don't have to fight them here lacks validity. It does. Or that Iran's refusal to stop its nuclear-enrichment program won't have serious consequences. It won't.

Our president stands in front of the world and lectures about the threat of the new Fascism or the new Communism -- while his acolytes cynically try to wedge the electorate apart. (Strike that. I forgot. He's "a uniter, not a divider.") The problem is no one's listening anymore. They hear him. They know the general outline of the subject. But he's lost the class.

What we get now for our $300 Billion-and-climbing are even more shrill claims that Iraq really is “the central front in our fight against terrorism." Why? Because it's election time. And, well, like Otter said, it's gotta work better than the truth.

Posted by shertaugh at September 1, 2006 2:51 AM

Comments

Posted by: Grammarian at September 2, 2006 4:38 AM