LuntzWatch: Bush Press Conference Loaded with LuntzSpeak
LuntzWatch: Bush Press Conference Loaded with LuntzSpeak
Over at TomPaine.com, Frank O’Donnell notes that President Bush “has obviously been well-coached on the Luntz language, as evidenced by last night’s performance.” O’Donnell documents several instances where Bush’s remarks on energy policy mirrored the deceptive talking points found in Luntz’s latest briefing book.
But the right-wing strategist’s Orwellian fingerprints could be found on much more than Bush’s energy talk. His remarks on Social Security were also infused with spin from Luntz’s “Social Security Step Language Ladder.”
Luntz recommendation: “To achieve ‘generation fairness,’ we have a responsibility to save Social Security RIGHT NOW so that our children and generations to come receive the same benefits we have enjoyed.”
Bush: “As a matter of fairness, I propose that future generations receive benefits equal to or greater than the benefits today’s seniors get.”Luntz: “Improving our Social Security system CANNOT be a partisan issue. We must all work together and put the partisan bickering behind us.”
Bush: “Too often the temptation in Washington is to look at a major issue only in terms of whether it gives one political party an advantage over the other. Social Security is too important for politics as usual.”Luntz: “Current and near retirees must KNOW their benefits are secure. … You must reassure them their benefits will be there when they retire, and MOST IMPORTANTLY will not be reduced by this proposal.”
Bush: “As we fix Social Security, some things won’t change. Seniors and people with disabilities will get their checks. All Americans born before 1950 will receive the full benefits.”Luntz: “It would be easier to turn away and leave the tough decisions to others down the road. But we do things in life not because they are easy but because they are necessary — no matter bow hard they are. And delay just makes the solution more difficult and costly.”
Bush: “People will say, You didn’t need to bring this up, Mr. President; it may cost you politically. I don’t think so. I think the American people appreciate somebody bringing up tough issues, particularly when they understand the stakes. The system goes broke in 2041. In 2027, for those listening, we’ll be obligated to pay $200 billion more a year than we take in in order to make sure the baby boomers get the benefits they’ve been promised. In other words, this is a serious problem.”
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The leak of the Luntz memo was a disaster for Bush. We now all see the man behind the curtain. Why won’t the MSM report this?
April 29th, 2005 at 12:36 pmI really like thinkprogress.org, and appreciate all the hard work.
My concern, though, is that a lot of the complaints and news items on the site amount to ad hominem (in this case) or petty (ie: the running commentaries about the President’s press conference) argumentation.
As progressives, why not raise levels of debate (which thinkprogress.org admittedly does more often than not)?
April 29th, 2005 at 12:57 pmBush needs to modify his language to include phrases like, ” Some American people albeit a very slim number of them, support what I am trying to do…. Maybe he needs to include something like, ” My ploitical base feels strongly about XYZ…” Face it, we’re just not that in to you.
April 29th, 2005 at 1:04 pmSome of the stories linking Luntz to Bush on energy stem from this backgrounder, issued by NRDC on April Fool’s Day: http://www.nrdc.org/media/pressreleases/050325.asp
April 29th, 2005 at 1:06 pmbefore some wingnut lunatic addresses the spelling error in my comment, here it is. I misspelled “political”.
April 29th, 2005 at 1:07 pm…wow, you could hardly see Luntz’s hand up the back of Bush’s coat. Also, I thought I saw Frank Luntz drinking a glass of water while Bush was “speaking.” That act will KILL in the Poconos…
April 29th, 2005 at 1:11 pmWhat’s bizarre about this entire debate is that everyone, right, left, and center, seems to believe that they know what the economy is going to be like in twenty years.
Heck, projecting more than about six months in advance is a fool’s errand.
April 29th, 2005 at 2:20 pmAs he did a year ago, President Bush on Thursday held a rare prime-time press conference to bolster his agenda. But in just one year, the once invincible President Bush finds his agenda failing, his popularity plummeting, nominees like John Bolton stalled and his disciplined party machine beginnning to split at the seams.
The political circumstances may have changed, but not the man confronting them. Just as in his disturbing April 13, 2004 press conference, Bush once again displayed his shocking unwillingness to own up to any of his immense inventory of presidential mistakes. While his Rome burns, President Bush fiddles the same tune of stubborn dissembling and infallibility:
1. Social Security: New Story, Same Lies
2. Dubya Goes Both Ways
3. The Party of Ideas
4. The Coming Tax Fraud
5. Vladmir Putin: He Had Me at Hello
The more things change, the saying goes, the more things stay the same. Of George W. Bush, truer words were never spoken…
For more, see: “The More Things Change”
April 29th, 2005 at 2:36 pmBush can predict the SS shortfall in forty years. Why won’t someone ask him to project the national debt?
April 29th, 2005 at 2:55 pmslightly off-topic, but how many bush administration officials does it take to screw in a light bulb?
April 29th, 2005 at 3:42 pm#11 – HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
April 29th, 2005 at 5:57 pmPersonal accounts? May as well just divert that money and go to Vegas. The odds are about the same.
April 29th, 2005 at 6:40 pmDid Luntz find a Bushspeak word for Orwellian yet?
April 29th, 2005 at 6:42 pmWe never did get a shot of Bush’s back during the “press conference” did we?
I wonder if that interesting “bulge” would have shown up…
I suspect it would have. Dimwit almost sounded as if he had an IQ approaching the triple digits.
April 29th, 2005 at 6:54 pmThanks to THE DAILY SHOW we have a face to the puppet master,Luntz. If anyone missed the show they should go to Commedy Central and watch Luntz explain how you “spray perfume on turds” which is a pretty good description of what he does for the administration.
April 29th, 2005 at 7:26 pmLook, the problem is not the Republicans’ use of language. It’s the failure of liberals and progressives to do the same. I say, “Fight fire with fire, dammit!”
April 29th, 2005 at 7:47 pmI noticed on the TV menu last night that, opposite the presidential media extravaganza, Encore cable’s Action West channel was showing the film “Marooned”; the title was an appropriate description of the Bush press conference as well, in the Chuck Jones/Looney Tunes sense of the word.
Bush’s obsession with Social Security reminded me of Herbert Hoover’s insistence after the stock market crash in 1929 that “Prosperity is just around the corner.” Hoover rode that idiotic phrase into a landslide drubbing for the GOP in 1932; I suspect Bush may repeat his political brilliance.
As for all the upteen times he mentioned it, I don’t think Bush saved his sacred Social Security scam. As even one of his supporters said recently, “After Iraq, it’s hard to trust Bush when he’s says something needs to be done right now.” It seems like a majority of Americans have come around to that opinion these days.
April 29th, 2005 at 8:58 pmLuntz and Bush ~ Perfect Together
April 29th, 2005 at 9:16 pmSeems our president is listening to Frank Luntz again.
“The leak of the Luntz memo was a disaster for Bush.”
I’d love to agree but I can’t. I don’t think it amounts to anything. Rove gets credit for being “Bush’s Brain” but it’s actually a committee that programs the Shrub and Luntz is certainly a primary contributor. But he’s been doing his thing, as have they all, for awhile and all the attention is still on Bush. I’d like to imagine that a tsunami of indignant outrage would wash over these word pimps but it ain’t gonna happen. The words of the right have a sleazier, more Springeresque quality to them. People like that shit.
April 29th, 2005 at 10:09 pmluntz: mr president, everyone thinks you are really thick
April 29th, 2005 at 10:22 pmbush: “some people say im too blunt”
Quite a few blog site comments mentioned that they though Bush was wearing a wire again. Imagine that!
April 29th, 2005 at 11:17 pmMaybe next press conference he’ll wear the wire and box on his chest — he can call it the “God-o-meter” and claim it helps him hear the instructions of the Almighty Voice That Must Be Obeyed, who is, of course, Karl Rove.
April 30th, 2005 at 6:18 amOh, and a tin helmet to protect him from ‘Evil Waves’ might be nice too.
April 30th, 2005 at 6:19 amThey did show Bushie’s back and no there was not the familiar square bulge in his back.
April 30th, 2005 at 9:40 pmI looked for an earpiece and saw none.
What I did see was a bumbling idiot trying to speak intelligently.
Again, a complete failure
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