December 30, 2004
It's incredible to me that there's a political controversy now over how quickly Bush had a response/statement after the tsunami. This seems like a political no-brainer to me: why not just come out and make a statement immediately? Steve of BTD quotes this "witty" retort from a White House staffer:
"The president wanted to be fully briefed on our efforts. He didn't want to make a symbolic statement about 'We feel your pain.'"But that's exactly what was needed: a symbolic (and gracious) gesture. Can it really be that the Bush administration doesn't understand symbolic statements are actually consequential -- especially on the international stage? Just for future reference: empathizing with this awful situation, which marries good will with telegenic humanitarian need (even some white people died!) is what you call a slam dunk.
"even some white people died!"
I enjoy your posts Paul, but you've got some explaining to do over that line...
Not sure what explaining you want... my meaning is simply what I said: that a catastrophe involving white victims is a bigger story and bestows more political potential than one involving only brown people. Surely this is obvious, even if it's disturbing...
No it is disturbing, i thought somehow you were implying that this disturbing fact was something Bush perpetuated...
Yikes! No...
Certainly they understand symbolic gestures. In this case, they just didn't feel like making one immediately, for whatever reason, and when they got called on it, they just went to the fallback plan of blaming Clinton.
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