What do the White House and Austin Powers have in common?
(Originally posted at The Carpetbagger Report.)
They both lost their mojo, baby!
But let's be more precise: Austin Powers (in The Spy Who Shagged Me) has his mojo stolen by his archnemesis Dr. Evil. Powers returns to 1969, where he and partner Felicity Shagwell recover it. And all is well, Fat Bastard and Mini-Me notwithstanding, until the appearance of Goldmember, which stunk.
The sad state of the shagless Bush came about quite differently. And I needn't get into it here. I'm sure you can all outline the causes of the demise of the Bush presidency.
But new Chief of Staff Josh Bolten wants to reverse course. He has no time machine at his disposal, at least none that we know of, but he intends on recovering the White House's mojo:
And that's the key. No change in substance, just change in style. Or, to put it differently, a new spin.
Bolten's resistance to change is laughable -- and all-too-predictable given what we know of this White House and its Rovian obsession with politics. Stubbornness isn't a virtue, at least not according to Aristotle, but Bush seems to misconstrue his own stubbornness for political courage. Which is why Iraq's turned out the way it has, why I'm pessimistic that there'll be a peaceful resolution to the Iranian nuclear crisis, and why Bush has no domestic agenda left. He stuck to policies that were broken from the get-go and now his approval ratings are hovering in the low-30s.
This is about propping up Bush at least through this fall's midterms. With no substance to work with, no viable policy objectives beyond yet another military escapade, all Bolten has is a five-point plan that's pure PR (plus a collision course with Iran). Steve Benen discussed that here; I did here.
I wouldn't put anything past this desperate, degenerate White House, and the spin has worked wonders in the past, but it's simply too late for Bush to recover his mojo. It's long, long gone. Just like the swingin' '60s.
They both lost their mojo, baby!
But let's be more precise: Austin Powers (in The Spy Who Shagged Me) has his mojo stolen by his archnemesis Dr. Evil. Powers returns to 1969, where he and partner Felicity Shagwell recover it. And all is well, Fat Bastard and Mini-Me notwithstanding, until the appearance of Goldmember, which stunk.
The sad state of the shagless Bush came about quite differently. And I needn't get into it here. I'm sure you can all outline the causes of the demise of the Bush presidency.
But new Chief of Staff Josh Bolten wants to reverse course. He has no time machine at his disposal, at least none that we know of, but he intends on recovering the White House's mojo:
It's time for the White House to go on offense and "get our mojo back." Josh Bolten said Sunday in his first interview since taking over as the president's chief of staff.
Bolten made no promises of pulling up President Bush's all-time low approval ratings, but he said he and Bush have decided they want to be more open with the media and the public.
"We've taken advice from a lot of folks that we ought to put the president out more in ways that the American people can see what he's really like," Bolten said on "Fox News Sunday."
But he said that does not mean the president's policies are going to get an overhaul. "I don't think we need to change, but we do need to refresh and re-energize," Bolten said.
And that's the key. No change in substance, just change in style. Or, to put it differently, a new spin.
Bolten's resistance to change is laughable -- and all-too-predictable given what we know of this White House and its Rovian obsession with politics. Stubbornness isn't a virtue, at least not according to Aristotle, but Bush seems to misconstrue his own stubbornness for political courage. Which is why Iraq's turned out the way it has, why I'm pessimistic that there'll be a peaceful resolution to the Iranian nuclear crisis, and why Bush has no domestic agenda left. He stuck to policies that were broken from the get-go and now his approval ratings are hovering in the low-30s.
This is about propping up Bush at least through this fall's midterms. With no substance to work with, no viable policy objectives beyond yet another military escapade, all Bolten has is a five-point plan that's pure PR (plus a collision course with Iran). Steve Benen discussed that here; I did here.
I wouldn't put anything past this desperate, degenerate White House, and the spin has worked wonders in the past, but it's simply too late for Bush to recover his mojo. It's long, long gone. Just like the swingin' '60s.
posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at
7:09 AM
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