A Peek Under the PR Mask

December 5, 2005 10:38 AM

A Peek Under the PR MaskOnce in a blue moon, we actually get a peek under the White House's public-relations mask, and this morning it comes courtesy of Peter Baker and Dan Balz , whose front-pager in The Washington Post suggests that Bush's unflagging public confidence about his Iraq policy reflects the work of public opinion researchers.
posted by Postroad (25 comments total)

Well, their public opinion intel is about as good as the stuff they used to justify the war.
posted by delmoi at 10:41 AM on December 5, 2005

Um, Postroad? No offense, but the story wasn't published "this morning." As the byline explains, it ran on Thursday, June 30, 2005.

I agree, it was a good story -- six months ago.
posted by evening at 10:55 AM on December 5, 2005

Can someone post a synopsis? I got lost after reading the first paragraph.
posted by jsavimbi at 11:01 AM on December 5, 2005

Synopsis: Bush needed to hire people to tell him that Americans only like wars they can win, unlike this one in Iraq.

And this post sucks.
posted by bardic at 11:11 AM on December 5, 2005

Were you thinking of Sunday's Feaver story?
posted by CunningLinguist at 11:17 AM on December 5, 2005

It appears this morning, as in "The topic of today's thread...", which can be viewed by other MeFites as condescending. For a discussion site, especially in the midst of heated topics, ie. - the current administration, there may be better ways to FPP.
posted by Smart Dalek at 11:20 AM on December 5, 2005

TODAY'S HEADLINE: BUSH ADMINISTRATION HIRES TWO INHUMANE ASSHOLES TO FIND BETTER WAYS TO LIE TO AMERICA ABOUT THEIR UNWINNABLE IMMORAL WAR.

IN OTHER NEWS, THE SKY IS BLUE, BROWN BEARS ARE CATHOLIC, AND THE POPE SHITS IN THE FOREST.

NEWS AT 5
posted by stenseng at 11:28 AM on December 5, 2005

Snark I tolerate, but capitalization is so 1990
posted by elpapacito at 11:30 AM on December 5, 2005

newsflash: american public prefers to vote for candidate it thinks is going to win election.
posted by 3.2.3 at 11:37 AM on December 5, 2005

I dunno. According to Newsweek,it took close to a week for the President to find out how bad things were after Katrina because he doesn't take bad news very well, and everyone was afraid to tell him. I almost hate to think it, but given that he doesn't read newspapers or watch TV, is it possible his sunny optimism about the war is the result of genuine ignorance? If the only information about it he's getting are the thumb-up, slam-dunk assessments we keep hearing from Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al, maybe he really does think things are going well and we just have to stay the course to victory.
posted by EarBucket at 11:45 AM on December 5, 2005

I think EarBucket has a point. There have been a bunch of things published in the last few months revealing that the President of the United States is a profoundly ignorant man, and that his ignorance is completely self-imposed.
posted by mr_roboto at 11:48 AM on December 5, 2005

don't confuse ignorance with plausible deniability.
posted by stenseng at 11:53 AM on December 5, 2005

last few months years
posted by lodurr at 11:54 AM on December 5, 2005

In Clinton administration, public opinion shaped policy.
In Bush administration, policy (tries to) shape opinion.
posted by Doohickie at 1:42 PM on December 5, 2005

wow
posted by interrobang at 3:27 PM on December 5, 2005

I'm with stenseng--don't let him off any hooks--the buck stops where? What happened to that CEO president we were supposed to get? the "uniter, not a divider"? the "compassionate conservative"?

The entire administration has been built on spin and lies and pr--and it's still the most important thing to them--unfortunately, they're incompetent at everything, including that.
posted by amberglow at 3:28 PM on December 5, 2005

Everyone's watching the smoke and mirrors.

Once the oil production agreements are signed, that ties down control for 25 to 40 years. Coming soon.

There's plenty of honesty and straightforwardness in this Administration -- ask anyone in Cheney's task force if he's been an honest broker between them and the government.
posted by hank at 4:16 PM on December 5, 2005

Was anyone unaware that Bush lives in an echo chamber with lots and lots of crosses on the walls? Okay then this post was for you.
posted by fenriq at 4:21 PM on December 5, 2005

Aha. From the "Security Fix" discussion at the weblog for the WP --- the PR guy who wrote the speech forgot to clean the metadata out of his Word document before giving it to the President.
posted by hank at 4:32 PM on December 5, 2005

more cough *bullshit* cough . . .
posted by mk1gti at 5:43 PM on December 5, 2005

I agree, interrobang.
posted by effwerd at 6:36 PM on December 5, 2005

That really needs to be preserved.
posted by cytherea at 8:34 PM on December 5, 2005

I find it hard to believe that the President has to hire some expensive consultant to tell him that if you just keep insisting the same ridiculous shit over and over again, idiots will buy it. I mean, isn't that how we entered this war to begin with?
posted by nanojath at 8:52 PM on December 6, 2005

Did that whitehose news link contain information at some point, interrobang? Cause all its got now is latin placeholder text (http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Lorem_ipsum)
posted by nanojath at 8:58 PM on December 6, 2005

No, it doesn't have any information, and that's why it's so amazing.
posted by interrobang at 8:04 AM on December 8, 2005