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Bush's first 8 months in office
Moore lies about Bush's supposed failures/inaction early in his presidency

 

David Koppel:

The movie lauds an anti-Bush riot that took place in Washington, D.C., on the day of Bush’s inauguration. Moore continues:

“No President had ever witnessed such a thing on his inauguration day. And for the next eight months it didn’t get any better for George W. Bush. He couldn’t get his judges appointed; he had trouble getting his legislation passed; and he lost Republican control of the Senate. His approval ratings in the polls began to sink.”

Part of this is true. Once Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords left the Republican party, Democrats controlled the Senate, and stalled the confirmation (not “appointment”) of some of the judges whom Bush had nominated for the federal courts.

 

Congress did enact the top item on Bush’s agenda: a large tax cut. During the summer, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives easily passed many of Bush’s other agenda items, including the bill whose numbering reflected the President’s top priority: H.R. 1, the Bush “No Child Left Behind” education bill. The fate of the Bush bills in the Democratic-controlled Senate, as of August 2001, was uncertain. The Senate later did pass No Child Left Behind, but some other Bush proposals did not pass.

 

Did Bush’s approval ratings begin to sink? Not really. Moore shows a screen displaying Bush with 53% job approval on May 3, and 45% on September 5. Strangely, the screen shot includes no source for this alleged poll.

 

University of Minnesota History Professor Steven Ruggles has compiled a chart showing Bush’s approval ratings in 13 major polls throughout his Presidency. According the chart, never during 2001 did Bush’s approval rating fall as low as 45% in any of the polls.

 

Nor did Bush’s approval ratings really “sink” after inauguration day. Bush’s popularity ratings rose significantly in April (when his tax cut was the main issue in Congress), and then returned to more normal levels in June. From Bush’s inaugural until September 10, almost all of his approval ratings were in the 50-60% range, with only a few results from an occasional poll either higher or lower.


Lee from Moorewatch picks each issue apart:
Comment @ Moorewatch

About eight minutes into the film we have Michael Moore’s thumbnail look at Bush’s first eight months in office.  Let’s take a look at the accuracy of his portrayal.

He couldn’t get his judges appointed.

Absolutely not true.  While there was indeed some issues where Democrats obstructed some of Bush’s judicial nominees, Bush did indeed get a number of judges appointed and confirmed by Congress.  This DOJ page shows the judicial confirmations that took place during the 107th Congress.  Every one of these was a Bush appointee.

He had trouble getting his legislation passed.

At this point Moore shows a clip of an unfurling Greenpeace banner protesting drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve.  However, what Moore fails to mention is that during this time period Bush got a massive tax cut passed, the Economic Growth and Tax Reform Reconciliation Act of 2001.  Even if this was the only thing Bush accomplished during this time period (it wasn’t) it would show Moore’s assertion to be patently untrue.

And he lost Republican control of the Senate.

Here Moore shows a clip of Sen. Jim Jeffords, who defected from the GOP to become an independent who caucused with the Democrats.  While this is factually accurate, it is worthwhile to note that the first election cycle after the defection saw the American people return control of the Senate to Republican hands, and Jim Jeffords making overtures to his former party to keep his committee chairmanship.

Bush's August Vacation

From paratrooper, caught by JimK (Discuss @ Moorewatch):

Here’s the first actual lie I found in the movie transcript. Not only is it factually untrue, but it’s also wrong in spirit. The Presidency travels with the President. He had daily security briefings ( except Sunday). His staff was with him, along with a bunch of reporters. He did work most days, and TRAVELED away from the ranch.

He did not stay at the ranch for the rest of August. He was in and out.

FROM THE MOVIE:

George Bush spent the rest of August at the ranch where life was less complicated.

This is said to give the impression that Bush wasn’t working for a whole month, and never traveled away from the ranch.

BUT.............

From the Official White House Press Briefing for August travel arrangements;

While in Texas, he will have a working vacation there. I was going to do this at the end of the briefing. Let me give you some information now. But the President will travel for approximately two days a week each week during his visit to Texas. The upcoming week, he will travel one day to build a house in nearby Waco, Texas, to participate in a Habitat for Humanity event.

The following week, the President will travel to Colorado and New Mexico. The week following that, the President will travel roughly three days to Wisconsin and other locations TBD. He’ll also travel to Pennsylvania that week.

The following week, the President will have an event in nearby San Antonio, and you can also anticipate travel over Labor Day weekend to some unnamed cities as of this point.

Now, before you asshats say “Is that the best you can do?”

I must say , yes.

That’s the best I can do with the first 4 minutes of the movie.

Now.............to minute 5.

Here's some further information:

 August 1, 2001: Nominated six US Attorneys, two judges for affirmation by Congress.
Placed phone calls to PM Blair and Ahern to discuss matters between
Britain and Northern Ireland.
President announces an agreement on the Patients Bill of Right
President addresses National Urban League Conference
 August 2, 2001: President meets with House and Senate education leaders.
 August 3, 2001: Placed six more nominations for US Attorneys.
President speaks to press at meeting to discuss his first six months in
office and the agenda for the future.
President attends a ceremony in East Room honoring Lance Armstrong
 August 4, 2001: President‘s Radio Address
 August 7, 2001: Press conference in Waco, TX with pool of reporters
 August 8, 2001: President helps build a home with Habitat For Humanity, then addresses
the group on faith-based and community initiatives.
 August 9, 2001: Addressed the nation on stem-cell research
 August 10, 2001: Announces nomination of two US Ambassadors
 August 11, 2001: President‘s Radio Address
 August 13, 2001: Presidential Ceremony to sign the Agriculture Supplemental Bill
President holds two press conferences with traveling White House pool.

The rest of the month had just as much, if not more, activity. I will omit it here to save space,
but you can find complete information at the following pages:

White House, —News releases for August 2001“
White House Press Briefing, August 1, 2001
White House Press Briefing, August 3, 2001
White House Press Briefing, August 9, 2001
White House Press Briefing, August 22, 2001
White House Press Briefing, August 31, 2001

The President was in Texas from August 7-13 and 21-25. The rest of the month was spent traveling to New Mexico, Colorado, Wisconsin, Missouri and then back to Washington at the end of the month.

A review of the White House news archive for August 2001 shows this month to be anything but a —vacation“. It is naïve to think that the President spent an entire month doing nothing, as Michael Moore implies.

Arguing both sides again

Christopher Hitchens points out the inconsistency of this phony criticism as well as another misrepresentation by Moore's sneaky camera tricks:

A film that bases itself on a big lie and a big misrepresentation can only sustain itself by a dizzying succession of smaller falsehoods, beefed up by wilder and (if possible) yet more-contradictory claims. President Bush is accused of taking too many lazy vacations. (What is that about, by the way? Isn't he supposed to be an unceasing planner for future aggressive wars?) But the shot of him "relaxing at Camp David" shows him side by side with Tony Blair. I say "shows," even though this photograph is on-screen so briefly that if you sneeze or blink, you won't recognize the other figure. A meeting with the prime minister of the United Kingdom, or at least with this prime minister, is not a goof-off.

Hitchens also comments on my absolute favorite Bush line ever: the "Now watch this drive" line.

The president is also captured in a well-worn TV news clip, on a golf course, making a boilerplate response to a question on terrorism and then asking the reporters to watch his drive. Well, that's what you get if you catch the president on a golf course. If Eisenhower had done this, as he often did, it would have been presented as calm statesmanship. If Clinton had done it, as he often did, it would have shown his charm.

Exactly.