Taking the low road on Veteran's Day

David Kusnet in The New Republic (excerpt):

Moreover, Veterans Day is certainly not the venue for a president to attack the opposition party or single out a defeated opponent, as Bush did today. Towards the end of his speech, Bush declared, "While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began." He criticized "some Democrats and antiwar critics" for "claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war."

Then he did something that no president in recent memory has done: He took what could be read as an implicit shot at the man he defeated, explaining, "Many of these critics supported my opponent during the last election, who explained his position to support the resolution in Congress this way." Bush then quoted Kerry's statement defending his vote to authorize the use of force in Iraq--essentially holding Kerry up for ridicule, since Kerry is now a war critic. Do you remember Clinton criticizing Bob Dole in 1997; or Reagan criticizing Walter Mondale in 1985; or even Nixon criticizing George McGovern in 1973? Of course not--second-term presidents tend to co-opt, not condemn, defeated opponents.

Bush's speech also adopted two of Nixon's smarmiest rhetorical techniques: attacking the nameless but nefarious "some," just as Nixon used to disagree with "some who say"; and lumping together very different people--the villainous "some Democrats," the "antiwar critics" who could be anyone from Russ Feingold to Ramsey Clark, and, finally, Kerry himself.

What's most remarkable about this speech is how Bush has bungee-jumped from the rhetorical high-road he usually takes to the lowest road any recent president has taken on a national holiday.

| +Save/Share | |