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09/09/2004: Masters of misdirection....
An interesting comparison between the White House and the Magic Castle, by Patt Morrison in the LA Times (registration required, or use BugMeNot):
There's a famous old house in Hollywood and another famous old house in Washington, D.C. They have a lot in common.
Both are big, rambling places of not altogether original design; the one in Washington was essentially from an English architecture book, and the one in Hollywood was essentially copied from a Franco-Midwestern chateau in Redlands.
Both are for members only, but if you know the right people, you can probably get invited in.
And both are pretty much in the same line of work. The Magic Castle, in Hollywood, does it for fun; the White House, in Washington, does it for — whatever it is, it isn't fun. They're both in the business of fooling people.
...
If the Bush folks ever find themselves out of work and Wal-Mart isn't hiring, I think they could take the misdirection skills they learned with the Dazzling Dubya and apply them at the Magic Castle:
• Abracadabra! Gay marriage, a threat to the family! (While the middle-class family of any configuration is threatened with its ever-lower slide down the income ladder.)
• Ta-daaa!! Improved healthcare for seniors! (But don't take notice of the fact that Medicare premiums are going up by 17% for millions of the elderly and disabled.)
• Presto! 1.7 million new jobs! (Don't pay any attention to the fact that we're still almost a million jobs short of the number the nation had when President Bush took up residence in the White House.)
• Voila! Open elections in Iraq and Afghanistan, even during wartime! (But the GOP keynoter believes that campaigning during wartime isn't constitutionally mandated--it's "Democrats' manic obsession to bring down our commander in chief!")
• Stupendous! America is the story of expanding liberty! (But at a New Mexico rally, if you wanted to hear your vice president make the case for four more years, you had to sign a pledge endorsing Bush.)
• Amazing! We have Saddam Hussein's pistol, right here! (But pay no attention to the man behind the curtain as you are endlessly told about weapons of mass destruction — there aren't any.)
I love the Magic Castle, and I love the White House. I just wish that the voters and the campaigns didn't need a brochure to tell the difference.
Len on 09.09.04 @ 08:16 AM CST
