Wednesday, June 02, 2004

Presidential Forensics, Fargo Style

I wonder if the Bushies like the movie Fargo. The story, in which a simple plan goes horribly awry with tragic results, is one with which the Bushies are intimately familiar. The panoply of luckless losers in Fargo is matched (even exceeded) by the cast of hapless characters that people the Bush administration.

As we head into the fall campaign I expect we'll even hear administration mouthpieces start to parrot lines from the movie. Like this from Steve Buscemi's character's: "I'm not gonna debate you, Kerry Jerry. I'm not gonna sit here and debate."

Of course, eventually, Bush will debate Kerry. Despite the doughty efforts of Bush's minions to dictate the quantity, timing, format, and topics there will be one (or more) opportunities for us to see these two men share the same stage and participate in what passes for political debate in the twenty-first century.

The Atlantic Online has a preview. It's a good introduction to what the article terms "asymmetric warfare." Both men are good debaters. (You'll have to read the article to see what that means as it applies to the malaproper in chief.) But they rely on vastly different tactics in their pursuit of a winning debate strategy.

Here's hoping it'll be a good show.

(Via Political Wire)