The other day in a dispatch (The view from 35,000 feet) I offered my thoughts on the president’s photo-op landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln, a carrier that, as Maureen Dowd wrote the other day, addressing Bush (The Iceman Cometh, “was practically docked, only 30 miles off shore, after 10 months at sea. They had to steer it away from land for you. If you’d waited a few hours, you could’ve just walked aboard.” But neither she nor I exhausted the depressing yet ludicrous richness of that pseudo-event. So I thought you might all enjoy seeing where three other writers, who grabbed that photo op moment, landed with it. Matthew Engel of the Guardian used “the stuntman in the bomber jacket” — and some well-placed sarcasm — to consider the outclassed Democratic candidates for president; Los Angeles Times TV critic Harold Rosenberg (in a piece that amused me greatly) used it to suggest where the media ought to but never will go when it comes to reporting the staged non-events of our world; and the New York Times‘ Paul Krugman, heading in quite a different direction, used it tellingly to suggest the creeping militarization of our world and what once might have passed for “our” democracy. Tom
Up to his usual stunts
Matthew Engel
The Guardian
May 6, 2003You do have to hand to it to the guy. He swooped on to the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln last week – the most spectacular entrance since the last Broadway production of Hello Dolly! – and he did look, in his bomber jacket, quite fantastically butch.
As Lincoln himself said at Gettysburg (wrongly, that time), no one will remember a word the president said. But they will remember the scene and his smile and the cheering soldiery and his bomber jacket, and believe that George W Bush had just defeated all those pesky Eye-raqis single-handed. Of course, it is remotely possible that the American electorate will decide that there are some political stunts so blatantly manipulative that they are actually intolerable. But we can probably rule that one out.
Man on Horseback
By Paul Krugman
The New York Times
May 6, 2003Gen. Georges Boulanger cut a fine figure; he looked splendid in uniform, and magnificent on horseback. So his handlers made sure that he appeared in uniform, astride a horse, as often as possible.
It worked: Boulanger became immensely popular. If he hadn’t lost his nerve on the night of the attempted putsch, French democracy might have ended in 1889.
You do have to hand to it to the guy. He swooped on to the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln last week – the most spectacular entrance since the last Broadway production of Hello Dolly! – and he did look, in his bomber jacket, quite fantastically butch.
As Lincoln himself said at Gettysburg (wrongly, that time), no one will remember a word the president said. But they will remember the scene and his smile and the cheering soldiery and his bomber jacket, and believe that George W Bush had just defeated all those pesky Eye-raqis single-handed. Of course, it is remotely possible that the American electorate will decide that there are some political stunts so blatantly manipulative that they are actually intolerable. But we can probably rule that one out.
Man on Horseback
By Paul Krugman
The New York Times
May 6, 2003Gen. Georges Boulanger cut a fine figure; he looked splendid in uniform, and magnificent on horseback. So his handlers made sure that he appeared in uniform, astride a horse, as often as possible.
It worked: Boulanger became immensely popular. If he hadn’t lost his nerve on the night of the attempted putsch, French democracy might have ended in 1889.
We do things differently here — or we used to. Has “man on horseback” politics come to America?
Some background: the Constitution declares the president commander in chief of the armed forces to make it clear that civilians, not the military, hold ultimate authority. That’s why American presidents traditionally make a point of avoiding military affectations. Dwight Eisenhower was a victorious general and John Kennedy a genuine war hero, but while in office neither wore anything that resembled military garb.
To read more Krugman click here
When no news is big news
The frenzy surrounding Bush’s speech last week affirmed how easy it remains to manipulate the major media.
By Howard Rosenberg
The Los Angeles Times
May 5 2003Atop the calendar copy desk
I’m standing here, surrounded by thrilled Los Angeles Times copy editors, to thank them for editing this column announcing that I have nothing to announce. Nothing other than the tide has turned and the major mistakes and misspellings in my column have ended, but that there is still work to be done, for typos will continue to appear.
This is historic, for I am the first TV critic to write a self-serving fantasy about saying absolutely nothing of note while standing atop a newspaper copy desk in downtown Los Angeles. And I can tell from the adoring faces of young copy editors, who have been coached to cheer my every word, that this is a big boost for their morale and a day they will not forget.
Howard Rosenberg’s column appears Mondays and Fridays. He can be contacted at [email protected]