The president who goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid dissent sure is selective about who gets inside The Bubble. Last October, Bush arranged a gathering of conservative luminaries — including Sean Hannity, Neil Boortz, Laura Ingraham, Michael Medved, and Mike Gallagher — for a mutual-admiration confab. In July, it was time for another meeting of the conservative minds, when Bush invited pundits like David Brooks, Rich Lowry, and Kate O’Beirne over for a chat. In August, Bush hosted another gathering, this time with Glenn Beck, Bill Bennett, Boortz, Scott Hennon, Ingraham, Lars Larson, Mark Levin, Medved, Janet Parshall, and Hugh Hewitt.
It seems to be a pretty familiar pattern: Bush obviously doesn’t care to engage those who might challenge him or expose him to ideas he finds distasteful, but he’s very fond of inviting groups of people who agree with his worldview. The latest example came late last week, when Bush chatted with milbloggers who support his Iraq policy.
Bush told the group that, to his knowledge, it was the first time a president had met with bloggers for a chat at the White House, one of the participants wrote. The blogs represented at the meeting are generally pro-Bush and pro-military, and the ensuing reports were highly sympathetic to the president.
“At this meeting President Bush came off as more comfortable with the message than I’ve seen him appear on TV or in speeches,” wrote [Ward Carroll of Military.com], a journalist and former Navy pilot. “No deer-in-the-headlights stuff here. Truly unwavering and passionate. Facts on the ground notwithstanding, he believes the United States can win the Iraq War. And to be honest, being around him made me believe it at that moment too.”
Matthew Burden, a former Army officer who blogs under the name Blackfive, raved about how Bush slapped his hand and called him “brutha.”
“The President was very intelligent, razor sharp, warm, focused, emotional (especially about his dad), and genuine,” Blackfive wrote. “Even more so than this cynical Chicago Boy expected. I was overwhelmed by the sincerity — it wasn’t staged.”
No, it was just the latest in a series of casual gatherings in which the president who avoids dissent at all costs chats with people who already agree with him.
There was apparently no transcript, but based on the bloggers’ posts, we can get a fair idea of what transpired.
For example, there was this “Victory Caucus” post.
Responding to one of the bloggers in Iraq he expressed envy that they could be there, and said he’d like to be there but “One, I’m too old to be out there, and two, they would notice me.”
Envy? Really? Because according to the White House, Bush need not be jealous of those who are on the ground in Iraq right now — the president is already serving on the “frontlines.”
Dan Froomkin added that Bush’s “battlefield envy” is also oddly out of place.
Maybe Bush was just making idle chit-chat. But this would not be the first time the president has appeared unaware of the hardships his war has caused hundreds of thousands of American troops — while expressing a misguided sense of bravado.
He certainly hasn’t ever put himself in harm’s way. The president who avoided serving in Vietnam as a young man has made only three visits to Iraq since declaring that major combat operations were over more than four years ago. All three of the visits were unannounced and featured extensive security.
Bush’s total time in country? Less than 15 hours.
Bush’s first trip was a two-and-a-half-hour visit to the Baghdad airport on Thanksgiving 2003, where he teared up at the sight of the soldiers and was famously photographed posing with a prop turkey.
In June 2006, Bush spent five hours visiting Iraqi political leaders in Baghdad, although he didn’t let the prime minister know he was coming.
During his most recent trip, two weeks ago, Bush was on the ground for seven hours, never leaving the confines of a military base known as Camp Cupcake, a heavily fortified American outpost for 10,000 troops with a 13-mile perimeter.
One other thing — several of the participants noted that the president literally started crying when describing the fact that his father fought the Japanese in World War II, but Japan is now a close U.S. ally. Bush reportedly said, “I’ve had meetings with the prime minister of the country he fought,” as a tear reportedly rolled down his face.
I don’t want to sound cold, but the president has told this story over 100 times over the last several years. Apparently, it still gets to him?
Either way, it apparently didn’t matter. The blogger participants ended up describing the president as “awe-inspiring,” “thought provoking,” having “nerves of steel,” and exuding “sincerity and passion.”
I think we can probably guess how these guys got an invitation inside The Bubble.