A Wink and a Grin

Well, I tried, Bush. I really tried to maintain a semblance of composure, fair-mindeness, and honest goodwill as I listened to your speech last night. I have to confess upfront that I arrived late (traffic) and left early (Jon Stewart, rebroadcast from the previous day at 7PM Pacific time. Sorry, Bush, couldn't resist!) So everything I say from here on in can be construed as utterly unfair, given that I had missed the beginning and the end. Still… Well, I'll go for it anyway.

I repeat, I tried to be fair and balanced, as your Fox folks might say. And I must say I nearly managed. It was the wink that did it, though. Your wink, Bush, mid-way through your presentation, presumably to someone in the audience. That, and the grin. Your Cheney's grin. He sat like the Cheshire Cat immediately behind your shoulder, with that imperturbable grin of his. So comfortable. So self-assured. So undoubting. So fatherly. So aggravating. Your wink said, You and I know that this is all bullshit, really. It said, I have to get through this charade, but don't you worry: once this piece is over, we'll get back to the real agenda. Cheney's grin said, Well done, lad. I'm proud of you. It said, We know who's in charge here, don't we? It said, You and I, lad, we'll show 'em.

But winks and grins aside, I have just a couple of personal gripes, as you might expect by now. The first has to do with this Social Security thing: you started off a few weeks ago calling it a "crisis", and it's now been demoted to a "problem." What you laid out last night, though, was a lot less than the "imminent threat" approach you used to sell the country on your Iraq adventure: the system, you told us, starts paying out more than it takes in by 2018--some thirteen years from now. It's not until four decades from now that it will be able to fulfill only 70 percent of its commitments. Hardly a pressing issue and one which, according to most ecomomists I've read, has much less drastic fixes than your "personal accounts" scheme. And I don't trust your blithe assurance that everything is on the table. As with Iraq, my guess is that it will once again be your way… Or your way.

For immediately far more pressing issues--well, the lead editorial in today's Los Angeles Times suggests a couple: immigration, and deficit reduction. I have my own suggestions, health care being at the top of the list. Here's a real crisis, if you're looking for one. People are actually getting sick and dying, now, here, today, in America, the richest nation in the history of the world, because the health care system is inadequate and simply unavailable to many, and because millions among us can't afford even basic health insurance. Oh, you did mention breezily your own aspiration to create a "community health care center" in every poor county, but it came as one of those "compassionate conservative" throw-aways that we have learned to distrust--like your promise of aid to African countries, Bush. Remember that? You never mentioned it this time around. Not once.

And while we're on the subject of this all-too familiar presidential disingenuousness ("disingenuity"? Help me, someone…) let's pause to note your laudable assertion that every death-penalty defendant deserves adequate legal defense. No quarrel with me there, Bush. I'm all for it. But it does tend to gloss over your record as Governor of Texas. From everything I've heard and read, your current nominee for Attorney General of the United States, Alberto Gonzales, provided you with only the most cursory legal notes in death penalty cases that came to you for your final clemency review, ignoring egregious examples of shoddy or perfunctory defense. Yet you sent countless people to their deaths on the basis of those reports, apparently without compunction. I'd like to think you've had a change of heart, but you see why I might have less than complete faith in your conversion, don't you? I mean, when in the same breath you urge congress to approve your nomination of Gonzales? Is there not some kind of disconnect there? I think so.

Second gripe--and this goes along with the wink and the grin--is your playing to the right-wing, evangelical balcony. I have to say it: this is disgraceful, abject pandering, Bush, no more nor less. A "constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage"? Come on, really. You have to know that this is nothing more than idle words, a nod (and a wink!) to the support base that elected you. And all that incomprehensible double-talk about scientific research and "the culture of life"? And the drama of the encounter between the parents of the dead Marine and the Iraqi voter…? Nicely staged, Bush. A real heart-breaker. But you and I and the whole world know that it would have been just as easy to find a bitterly resentful parent and an angry, disgruntled non-voter to parade before the American audience.

Here's what I hope: I hope the Democrats have the will and the power to maintain a steady opposition for the next four years. Well, somewhat less, now, than four, and two of them with your own power on the wane. I don't think they will roll over quite so easily this time. I think they're on their guard. Anyway, let's get those health care centers going, okay? And the improvement in the legal defense of death penalty defendants? And, from last time around, No Child Left Behind… the funding? Oh, and about that promise of aid to Africa...