www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34164-2004Oct14.html
All RSS Feeds Richard Cohen The President Vanishes By Richard Cohen Friday, October 15, 2004; Page A23 For months now I've dropped bets on the presidential election like Hansel (of "Hansel and Gretel") dropped pebbles. For honor and money, I've wag ered on George Bush, not because I wanted him to win but rather because I thought he would. It's not the tightening po lls that have done it -- I knew that would happen -- but rather somethin g I could not have predicted. The president I have in mind is the funny, good-natured regular guy I onc e saw on the campaign trail -- a man of surprisingly quick wit and just plain likeability. I contrasted this man to John Kerry, who is as light and as funny as a mud wall, and I thought, "There goes the election."
Sign Up Now Where it has mattered most -- the three debates -- Bush has been wooden, ill at ease and downright spooky. He makes bad jokes, cackles at them in the manner of a cinematic serial killer and has lacked the warmth that he not only once had but that I thought would compensate for a disastrou s presidency and give him a second -- God help us -- term. In short, he could take over the Bates Motel in an instant. Just what has happened to Bush I shall get to in an instant. Right now I want to quote that newest font of all political wisdom, Jon Stewart of " The Daily Show," who said at a New Yorker-sponsored breakfast yesterday morning that he had seen at least two Bushes in recent days: the "angry Bush from the second debate" and a thickly muddled one. Stewart was kidding, but all jokes must be based on truth or else they ar e not funny. The truth in this case was that Bush has been inconsistent -- definitely not the reliably unswerving man we prefer as our country's steward. A bit later, Stewart made a serious remark that goes to the heart of what has been Bush's problem. He referred to the president's nonexistent "le arning curve," which is indeed troubling. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand said of them that "they have learned nothing and forgotten nothing." I'm not too sure of the forgetti ng, but when it comes to learning, Bush has shown little growth. Historians may someday say that the beginning of the end for Bush came la st April when Time magazine's John Dickerson asked the president at a te levised news conference, "What would your biggest mistake be . Bush, who said the question took him by surprise, said he could not come up with one. Essentially the same question was asked by Linda Grabel, an ordinary vote r, at the St. But this time, too, Bush could offer not a single substantive example. Aside from making "some mistakes in appointing people," everything had gone swimmingly. It was either the response of someone who is vastly deluded or sticking to a political strategy concei ved by people who do not value truth. Either way, it harkens back to tha t "learning curve" Stewart mentioned and it demolishes Bush's pose as a regular guy, someone approachable -- someone you could like. It is not p ossible to like someone who cannot admit a mistake. Iraq is the crazy au nt in the attic that Bush will not acknowledge. When she throws the furn iture, Bush says you're just hearing things. Had Bush admitted that things went wrong with Iraq, he could have been hi mself. But he was out there three times telling us what we know is not t rue. This was Kerry's problem when he was defending his vote in favor of a war that he never, in his gut, thought was a good idea. When he final ly was able to say how he really felt, his campaign took off. The natural has been turned i nto just another synthetic pol. His only good moments came when he talke d about his faith and his family, tapping into a wellspring of emotional truth. Other than that, he was only rarely the politician he used to be -- crushed, not empowered by incumbency.
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