Fred Barnes applauds the ‘Cheerleader in Chief’

March 10, 2007

Every weekend, I look forward to reading the latest column from Fred Barnes, the executive editor of The Weekly Standard. There are plenty of Bush shills in the conservative media, but Barnes is in a league of his own. He seems to enjoy being an unpaid public relations rep for the White House.

Barnes’ latest is no exception. He acknowledges that things appear rough for the president right now, but that’s alright — because Bush is just so darn chipper.

The White House staff reflects the president. This is obvious to the point of being a truism. Yet it needs to be remembered in the context of a Bush presidency smacked by Scooter Libby’s felony conviction, the Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal, and the overblown flap over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. And of course there’s still the war in Iraq, which remains unpopular. Given all this, why hasn’t the president’s staff drifted into despair and gloom and given up? Because President Bush hasn’t.

Bush’s relentlessly upbeat demeanor, which he flaunts at press conferences and other public events, infuriates his political opponents and much of the mainstream media. They want him to act like the broken man they think he should be. Sorry, but he’s a healthy man, mentally and physically. He’s bolstered by his religious faith, his sense of mission, his scorn for elite opinion, and what an aide calls “his really good physical shape.” Exercise and sleep help to “keep his spirits high,” the aide says.

Yes, it’s a 1,000-word paean to the president’s “capacity for enthusiasm.” Bush’s presidency may be a failure, his foreign policy may be a disaster, his legislative agenda is going nowhere fast, and the public loathes him, but look at how upbeat he is! (Also notice how Barnes mentions Bush’s “physical” prowess twice in two sentences.)

Barnes goes on to explain that Bush’s “enthusiasm” is bolstered by “progress” in Iraq.

Almost alone in Washington, the White House is optimistic about Iraq. “Think where we were two months ago,” an aide says. “The sense in Washington was that the floor was collapsing in Iraq. It looked like Senator [John] Warner would soon be taking a trip to the Oval Office to tell the president the war can no longer be sustained.” Now the president believes “progress” is being made in Iraq. And if he’s hopeful, so is everyone else at the White House.

At the risk of being a kill-joy, what if the hopefulness is misplaced? What is the “progress” doesn’t, you know, exist?

On Tuesday, President Bush gave a speech claiming the Iraq escalation is showing “encouraging signs” of progress. But in today’s Washington Post, a senior Bush administration official is quoted acknowledging that “right now there is no trend” showing the escalation is working.

Moreover, officials say the information Bush presented to back up his rosy claims was skewed.

Maybe these officials don’t understand the president’s “capacity for enthusiasm.”

I would characterize Bush as DELUSIONAL. That explains his “enthusiasm.”

  • “They want him to act like the broken man they think he should be. Sorry, but he’s a healthy man, mentally and physically.” — Barnes

    Sorry, Barnes has it twisted. Bush does not act broken because he’s mentally unhealthy, and morally lacking to the extent that he has no sense of guilt or shame. In his own mind, he is so superior to all others that he sees himself as beyond reproach, accountability or even disagreement.

  • Being healthy and in shape does help deter depression, but sometimes events dictate that depression is the proper response.

  • How did that jingle go? Have some coke and a smile?

    To expect this shrivel hearted piece of crap to feel remorse or doubt is like expecting my cat to perform quadratic equations. Of course BushBrat is happy and upbeat. He doesn’t give a fuck about anyone or anything, any problems that resulted from his actions are either grossly “over-blown,” not really his fault or outright lies. Why should he be depressed? I know he goes on about his legacy but hey, if some people insist on calling him the worst president ever, they’re all liars too. There will always be some peon to tell Former pResident Bush what a heckuva job he did. (Looking at Barnes and possibly McCain.)

    When this is all over Bushy will just mosey on back to the Ranch and wait for the offers to CEO a company to death start rolling in. Maybe he’ll set up a conservative think tank. I’m sure we’ll see him shaking his head over the mess in Iraq and looking puzzled when some one suggests that it is his fault.

    Aren’t addicts fun?

  • “Sorry, but he’s a healthy man, mentally and physically. He’s bolstered by his religious faith, his sense of mission, his scorn for elite opinion, and what an aide calls “his really good physical shape.”

    He doth protest too much.

    I wonder what the world looks like thru Fred’s eyes. My stupid take is that it must be a happy pseudo 50s world where there are buffets of the best Grade A steak and potatoes for $1.99, where exercising 5 minutes a day turns you into Ahnold S, where Libruls are all dumb weak kneed shits who are ALWAYs wrong, where comic book solutions work for real world problems, where women don’t have opinions of their own, where white dumb males rule over minorities who smile at being treated like 5th class citizens and in the bedrooms where sex is considered great only when the man has an orgasm (with a woman only and only for procreation (wink-wink))

  • Honestly, I don’t know who’s more delusional – Bush or Barnes.

    I don’t know who’s drugs work better, either, Bush’s or Barnes’.

    Why is EVERYONE else in this country, hell, the WORLD – other than the 25% Bush dead-heads – sane, and this crew is not?

  • “He seems to enjoy being an unpaid public relations rep for the White House.” – CB

    Are we sure Barnes isn’t unpaid? The White House hasn’t had a problem secretly paying people to shill for them before.

  • The President’s recent comments regarding the severe storm damage in Georgia are telling. He said… “We want Habitat for Humanity to assist with the recovery from the storm because some “poor people” will need help.” Meaning poor people don’t look to your government, AKA Katrina, you need to look elsewhere because the US government is for the rich and whites only. Only a little over 500 days before this incompetent “Rovian idiot tyrant” will be gone.

  • Curmudgeon: Are we sure Barnes isn’t unpaid? The White House hasn’t had a problem secretly paying people to shill for them before.

    good point, dude.

  • Meow = mc squared?

    Bush was a cheerleader for Yale’s teams. He has experience cheering on losing efforts.

  • I think Barnes is the delusional one. Admittedly I haven’t seen any video footage of Bush in a few weeks, but the last time I saw pictures of Bush I think haunted might a better term for describing Bush’s overall demeanor. I don’t think the residents of 1600 are so naive that think they will easily skate through the 110th Congress.

  • The Bush attitude can be summed up in a line from another famous moron:

    What? Me worry?

  • Outside of hopelessly right-wing political hacks like Barnes who are so deep into the propoganda and spin put out by the RNC, I often wondered since Nov. 2004 how this fucking moron who takes up oxygen in the White House got reelected. Last night I think I got my answer. I finally got around to watching the movie Borat. To those who have seen it, once Borats’ road trip dips south past DC, these ignorant rubes and rednecks who are the victims of Sasha Baron Cohens pranks/social commentary are the ones who, knowing what they know now, would vote for Bush again tomorrow. These knuckle dragging subhumans are Ws’ base. It really is depressingly sad.

  • I’m no expert, but have heard many mentally ill people are full of enthusiasm and are upbeat. Ignoring reality can make the world quite a rosy place indeed.

  • There are some rules at play. Barnes has column inches he must fill. He must say rosy things about repubs in power. That is his job. It’s not his job to make sense. His job is to not make sensible people laugh out loud.

    The problem is that filling a column with rosy things about Bush and not making sensible people laugh out loud is simply not possible.
    Maybe Barnes could write for FOX’s 1/2 Hour Comedy Hour. They need the comedy and he needs a forum where his thoughts are not seen as entirely ridiculous.

  • As with everyone else who has put all their eggs in the Bush basket, Barnes is shilling in hopes of getting a spot in the Grand Chimp-Ah’s bomb shelter—when the relentless overextension of the neocon movement finally explodes in their faces. They, unlike the previous incarnation of the Nazi regime, cannot simply melt into the forests of South America….

  • Remorseless. Tens of thousands are dead because of his mistakes, literally, yet he remains remorseless. America is losing two wars, yet he’s remorseless. And Fred admires him for it.

  • The quotes “Sorry, but he’s a healthy man, mentally and physically,” and “what an aide calls ‘his really good physical shape,'” both show that man love is alive and well in the Beltway, despite all the anti-gay rhetoric by the Repubs. I was waiting for descriptions of our leader’s nubile young-looking loins in the next sentence by lustful Fred. Mr. Barnes has a man-crush, pure and simple. The evidence of BJ’s under the Oval Office desk won’t be found on a blue dress this time, but on a suitcoat and tie in Fred’s closet.

    Besides, why would a man without a conscience be unhappy? Shouldn’t that set off lights in Fred’s head that after all the deaths attributable to Bush’s reign that the guy shows not the slighest bit of sadness or remorse? Isn’t that a pathology instead of an attribute?

  • The evidence of BJ’s under the Oval Office desk won’t be found on a blue dress this time, but on a suitcoat and tie in Fred’s closet. Comment by petorado

    I’d say there’s a better chance of finding the incriminating evidence in Jeff Gannon’s closet.

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