The politicization of everything

I hate this. The political dialogue is so coarse and each side is grasping at so few positive talking points that now nothing is out of bounds.

Latest case in point: Bush takes credit for the Iraqi Olympic team.

Christ.

He also takes credit for the Afganistani team, but no one cares about them because their soccer side didn't beat Portugal. This makes sense, because this is an administration of winners. We're a strong, independent people and we build strong, athletic nation-states. Here, Bush's blog makes the direct connection between Iraq's stunning victory and the American occupation.

The story itself is amazing. It's a fantastic tale of transcendence, perseverance and dedication. I find it incredibly inspiring. It should not, however, be a partisan success story. These athletes are not Republicans, despite how desperately the administration wants them to be.

I found this at the Daily Times, which is a Pakistani paper, I think. Apparently the Iraqi Olympic committee got its funding from coalition forces.

So this is where the reconstruction dollars--that huge deficit--are going? To the creation of these kinds of heartwarming stories tailor-made to draw emphasis away from the upsurging death toll of Amercans and Iraqis caused by the administration's repeated failures and missteps? Pave a fucking road.

I'm mad about this. It turns out that the Iraqi national team is angry too. This is a member of the team Bush was blogging about:

"I want to defend my home. If a stranger invades America and the people resist, does that mean they are terrorists?" Manajid says. "Everyone [in Fallujah] has been labeled a terrorist. These are all lies. Fallujah people are some of the best people in Iraq." -- Manajid, Iraqi National Soccer Team

He and his handlers have cheapened the life or death struggle of Iraqis and made it a political anecdote--a diversionary fluff piece at that. I'd be angry too. I am angry, but that's nothing new.

Before the partisan backlash begins, we all know I skew liberal, so I'm naturally more tolerant of Kerry than Bush. Having said that, if Huckleberry Hound would have come up with this, I'd sell him up the Mekong River in a leaky ass swiftboat so fast his enormous head would spin.

Further, we all know no one reads this blog, so any backlash would be me making a bunch of anonymous comments to give the appearance of a bi-partisan dialogue.

This election isn't politics, it is pageantry. I understand the game is 90% image, but this too damned much. I don't know. Maybe it's always been like this.

Maybe I just didn't notice. Maybe I'm only now old enough to realize what bullshit our process is--what sheep our people are.

I want Gallop to do a poll on what people thought of that commercial. People that matter that is, not the Iraqis we feature in our political ads--real people.

Infuriating.



Anecdotally: this is from a rally Bush held in Redmond, just miles from where I was sitting in gridlock because of his visit:

"At the opening ceremony, Team USA marched alongside men and women from Afghanistan and Iraq, nations that four years ago knew only tyranny and repression"

No one asked him if the tyranny was limited to the latter two nations he mentioned.