Yeah You Right

Monday, November 08, 2004
 
The Message
I commented on another site after the election that the media bias had really been pissing me off, but that thankfully most of the examples I'd been squirreling away in the back of my head had gotten displaced by more important things to remember (also now forgotten). But there's one that, for whatever reason, still sticks in my craw, prompting me to go back tonight and search for the article online. It was "The Road To Resolve," byline Evan Thomas et al., which appeared in the Sept. 6 issue of Newsweek.* Ostensibly about the President's misspent youth and post-40, quickly sobered-up adulthood -- the second head is "A Sober View: He partied hard, then dried out and found a fierce determination. How George Bush was saved—and never looked back" -- the majority of the article is, as one would suspect from the slug, about W's turnaround and its concomitant lack of "inner doubt" (although to Newsweek , W apparently shares with Stalin, not Kennedy or Clinton, the trait of self-assuredness).

Here's a portion, about 8 grafs in, that contains the typically egregiously snarky Evan Thomas line that irritated me. See if you can spot it.

It is easy to mark the turning point in George Bush's life. It was the morning of July 28, 1986, when he woke up, wretchedly hung over after a night of celebrating his 40th birthday at the Broadmoor, a resort in Colorado, and decided to quit drinking. He did not seek therapy or join Alcoholics Anonymous. He just quit, and joined a regular Bible group. Before Bush gave up the bottle, his life was more feckless than accomplished. After that day, he moved from success to success. Bush has been sober for 18 years (less time than John Kerry has spent in the U.S. Senate); for 12 of those years, he has been running for office or governing. His mature life, then, has been a public one, mastering, despite his occasional inarticulateness, the art of politics. And his relatively brief adulthood may also help explain the roots of the self-confident side of his nature.


So we should despise George W. Bush and desire to defeat his reelection not only because he's moralistic, stupid, yada yada yada, but also because he's only been sober for 18 years. Comparing Bush's sobriety to Kerry's Senate tenure is like comparing apples to assholes, if you'll excuse the paraphrase.

What dicks.

*I briefly was a subscriber as a result of having to quickly pick some mags when the Boy was selling subscriptions through his school. Didn't remain one very long.

 - posted by Tommy Paycheck @ 9:48 PM   |    permalink    |   
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