The Roar of the Crowd

This bit from Atrios of Eschaton is both funny and frightening at the same time. Frightening because some Americans are just dim enough to buy it.

It starts out looking like a pretty succesful campaign stop for George W. Bush. Cheering crowds? Check. Standing ovation? Check.

It was upbeat, precise, as organized as a meeting of the board of directors, framed at beginning and end with rousing music -- a near-perfect campaign stop:

President George W. Bush arrived on schedule. He gave his speech. He moderated a panel of five people on a makeshift stage in front of a sign that said "Strengthening America's Economy." He wove their stories seamlessly into the fabric of his re-election campaign. He engaged in self-deprecating humor that even a detractor might find charming.

And then he left -- to a standing ovation -- shaking hands all the way to the exit door of U.S.A. Industries in Bay Shore, where his campaign made this first of three stops on Long Island yesterday.

But it becomes obvious that the emporer wasn't wearing any clothes, when revealed how many in that cheering crowd didn't understand what he was saying in the first place. (Somethign that's often true even if Bush is in a room of fluent English-speakers.)

Security people kept reporters from interviewing the workers at U.S.A. until the president was on the way to his next stop.

But when workers were finally interviewed -- these people who made up the bulk of the president's cheering audience in New York -- Bush's performance turned out to be, if anything, even more impressive.

"No speak English," said the first worker, smiling apologetically.

"No speak English," said the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth workers way-laid in the crowd.

But you think the tax cuts should be made permanent, as he says?

"Sorry, no English," said another.

Ya gotta give the Bushies credit for a pretty smooth move here. The President gets a great photo-op, and before anyone can note that it wasn't quite what it seemed. And all without breaking a sweat.

It is possible that President Bush could have drawn a crowd of several hundred at lunchtime on the streets of Bay Shore to cheer his economic policies, which can be summed up in two words: tax cuts.

But if that crowd is ready-made -- the work force of a small auto parts factory whose owner has received tax breaks from the Republican-run state and town governments, and who employs large numbers of non-English speaking immigrants happy to work for $6 to $9 an hour with few benefits -- why bother?

What's scary is that it just might work.

Optimism apparently will be one of the themes of his campaign. You don't have to like Bush to see the brilliance of it. It is apparently the counter-punch to the relentless attack of his presumed democratic opponent, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who criticizes Bush for what he terms Bush's many failures: failures of economic policy, of foreign policy, of environmental and domestic policies, of political vision.

Optimism is a deep vein in the psyche of all people, Americans especially; and if Bush succeeds at bottling it for his campaign, he will win.