Bagging Bush

Look at how the AP’s Sally Buzbee describes the “unraveling” of America’s Mideast policy (2/24):

The rush to blame the United States for the [Askariya] shrine bombing. . . riots over the prophet drawings. . .the United Arab Emirates ports dispute. . . Hamas’ election win. . . sign[s] of just how much America’s Mideast policy has unraveled in recent months.

Let’s go through this list point by point. The U.S. had nothing to do with the Askariya shrine bombing. The U.S. has no connection to the prophet drawing riots, which are encouraged by America’s enemies, and target Denmark. Hamas’ election victory hurts the U.S. effort to settle the Palestinian question, but in the end, we should benefit from Palestine’s having held democratic elections. The UAE ports dispute was a U.S. public relations mistake, yet Bush is doing the right thing to delay the sale while standing behind it.

AP is an unsophisticated news source, though one that used to have some claim on objectivity. Today, the template for U.S.-origin international news stories is a simple, “How do we make Bush look bad?” Happiness comes from a job well done. The mainstream media (MSM) will be happy when the Republicans go down, the Democrats recapture the White House, and observers give partial credit to the MSM for accomplishing that goal.