Paul Krugman lays out a pretty honest look at Michael Moore's controversial film. A lot of lefties will take the movie for gospel. And plenty of rabid conservatives believe the movie is treasonous. Krugman's opinion of the film is that it is probably somewhere in between. The right is making the movie to seem way worse than it is. A lot of those in the punditocrisy, who haven't seen the film, feel obligated to speak negatively about it. For me, I think the film honestly looks at two things that have been bothering me for some time.
For example, audiences are shocked by the now-famous seven minutes, when George Bush knew the nation was under attack but continued reading "My Pet Goat" with a group of children. Nobody had told them that the tales of Mr. Bush's decisiveness and bravery on that day were pure fiction.
This one is a big deal. For my vote, I would have expected the President to politely excuse himself upon hearing the news. At least one of his aides could have come to his rescue. Sure, it was a new experience for us all. But you can't argue with the film. Bush just sits there. For seven minutes. If you add this to the fact that Bush hid for the rest of the day, you can get a better understanding of why I didn't buy into the "strong courageous leader" meme.
The other point Moore made in the film had already been rubbing me the wrong way for some time.
Mr. Bush's carefully constructed persona is that of an all-American regular guy — not like his suspiciously cosmopolitan opponent, with his patrician air. The news media have cheerfully gone along with the pretense. How many stories have you seen contrasting John Kerry's upper-crusty vacation on Nantucket with Mr. Bush's down-home time at the ranch?But the reality, revealed by Mr. Moore, is that Mr. Bush has always lived in a bubble of privilege. And his family, far from consisting of regular folks with deep roots in the heartland, is deeply enmeshed, financially and personally, with foreign elites — with the Saudis in particular.
Even before 9/11, I did not like the way the Bushies tried to characterize the President. The whole rancher image, which was really set in stone during his first August vacation, just didn't do it for me. I was well aware of Bush's upbringing before he ran for president. There was an article in a recent Vanity Fair about Bush's brother, Neil, and his nasty divorce. One section talks about how George, Neil, and Jeb had planned to spread across the country and set up shop in Texas, Colorado, and Florida, respectively. So from the start, Bush's "ranch" lifestyle was a perfectly crafted storyline. I've met plenty of people who believe that Bush has always been a Texan. The fact remains that at the end of the day, his family headquarters is a tony estate in Kennebunkport, Maine. Is there any doubt that the day Bush leaves public life the ranch will be up for sale?
The facade is manufactured. That is the big point Moore tries to lay out. The media never addressed it and the myths were propagated. At least Kerry isn’t trying to create an image that isn’t true. For all the talk about flip-flops and elitism, nothing is worse than a phony.