October 22, 2006
During an interview today on ABC’s This Week, President Bush tried to distance himself from what has been his core strategy in Iraq for the last three years. George Stephanopoulos asked about James Baker’s plan to develop a strategy for Iraq that is “between ’stay the course’ and ‘cut and run.’”
Bush responded, ‘We’ve never been stay the course, George!’ Watch it:
Bush is wrong:
BUSH: We will stay the course. [8/30/06]
BUSH: We will stay the course, we will complete the job in Iraq. [8/4/05]
BUSH: We will stay the course until the job is done, Steve. And the temptation is to try to get the President or somebody to put a timetable on the definition of getting the job done. We’re just going to stay the course. [12/15/03]
BUSH: And my message today to those in Iraq is: We’ll stay the course. [4/13/04]
BUSH: And that’s why we’re going to stay the course in Iraq. And that’s why when we say something in Iraq, we’re going to do it. [4/16/04]
BUSH: And so we’ve got tough action in Iraq. But we will stay the course. [4/5/04]
also check out this press briefing by scott mclelland, where he outlined the white house policy on “staying the course”…
As some of our commenters have noted, everything this White House does is scripted. There is simply no way that Bush did this interview without his people intentionally choosing to have a rainbow flag right behind his head, framing the entire shot. Look at these photos, that flag was clearly meant to be where it is in the frame. The question is why?
Here’s Bush with the rainbow flag behind him:
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Here’s a close-up of Bush and the flag:
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And here’s the gay rights flag:
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In all fairness to Bush, it’s possible this isn’t the gay rights flag at all. It may simply be the PACE flag (“Peace” in Italian) used by opponents of the war in Iraq.
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They’re simply too similar to be anything else. Yes, there is one more row of color in the gay flag vs. Bush’s rainbow flag, but I’ve never seen flags like this other than the gay flag. Normally I’d say this is just a hysterical coincidence. But after the White House defending Secretary of State Condi Rice’s description of a gay couple as married last week – mind you, not only did the White House defend what Rice said, but Rice made the announcement in front of Mrs. Bush – I’m smelling a subliminal rat here.
It’s very difficult to conclude other than someone in the White House has clearly decided to send out the silent code that “gay is okay” right before the election. It is very difficult to believe that all of this is just coincidence.
Then again, it’s not like the Bush administration, including the White House, isn’t full of gays – so perhaps the pink mafia strikes again. (Anyone see George Allen’s staff, or the RNC, doing any last minute decorating on the set before Bush spoke?).