Posted by
Bill Crawford on Sunday, May 15, 2011 10:12:25 PM
I've come to understand that life is sprinkled throughout by bulls**tters, and some of them are quite talented. Unfortunately, the two fields of endeavor that attract them like flies are the law and politics.
I've learned to listen, take a step back and soak their words in, the better to rationally sort them out. You see, the better ones also deal in speed and volume. Lots of detail, at 300 words a minute. In person, they can be intimidating- I ran for office against one the year before last.
Well, the President is a master at it. He's not as smooth as the last lawyer/ President (who happens to be disbarred at the moment, if memory serves). But Barrack can serve it up with the best of them when he is on his game.
The El Paso speech was one of the terms most fluent examples. It was served on a number of shingles concurrently.
First, there is the defiant, in your face bull: "..we have strengthened border security beyond what many believed was possible."
Then, there is the motivational bull: much of the border security advocates are borne of "fear and resentment".
Then, there is the red herring bull: "We've answered their concerns". "They wanted to triple the number of border guards, and we did that".
And throw in a little stand-up comedy bull, about how we all want "moats with alligators".
I see he stopped in El Paso, one of the liberal bastions of Texas. I doubt he could have done his act on the border in Pima County, Arizona- I'm guessing the Secret Service would not have been able to whip up a large enough detail to cover the sniper spots all over the Mexican side. Then again, the whole bit about the border being safe wasn't for all of America. I don't think he cares who is down there with loaded weapons by their bedside- they weren't going to vote for him, anyway.
We want a secure border, Obama. But I don't remember any Republican proposal that attached signing on to the DREAM Act with a set number of border patrollers. That is the red herring- he sets the terms of negotiations for his opponents, and then ridicules when they don't keep their end of the bargain he carries around in his head.
And then to turn and ridicule his detractors, when our first concern is the drug cartels that are crossing over our border and wreaking havoc all through the Southwestern border areas, one has to take pause.
I don't understand. When he was so focused on message in the '08 campaign, he had people working for him that talked like this- but he was above the fray. Hell, his campaign workers were some of the most disrespectful people I've ever met. What earthly good does it do him to talk like this? This will be his undoing. Even a good bulls**t artist has some respect for his audience. And when you mount a Presidential bully pulpit, you always have a crowd of at least a quarter billion looking in.
You can't polarize like that and then mount a national campaign. Not unless the opponent is Barry Goldwater.