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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. |
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