If you didn't think the Bush administration took it hard in the gut after they found out Ron Reagan, Jr. would be speaking at the Democratic Convention, then just imagine how they are going to feel after they read this scathing piece by Reagan's daughter Patti Davis in Newsweek.
Here is an excerpt:
"A friend of mine said she didn’t want to see Fahrenheit 9/11 because she doesn’t like Michael Moore. 'Because he’s bombastic and strident?' I asked, already knowing the answer.“'Exactly,' she replied.
"I conceded that point—he can be both those things. But I tried to point out that he’s just the messenger in the film. And the message is an important one even if you don’t like the guy who is bringing it to you. Besides, he probably learned stridency decades ago and never un-learned it. What’s important is, when he stood in the kitchen with a mother from Flint, Mich., whose son had just been sent to Iraq and he agreed with her that America is a great country, I believed him. I think a lot of people did. I think my friend would too, if she ever sees the movie. That’s what I mean about his love for America—it comes through even if you don’t like his style.
"President Bush, on the other hand, says that he loves this country and, giving him the benefit of the doubt, I assume he does love his conceptualized idea of America. But I don’t think he loves us—the people who make up this land. The huddled masses. The millions of citizens who just want a peaceful, safe life. Those who want to put their kids through school and see them grow up; who want to take vacations to other countries without fearing for their lives because so much of the world hates us.
"I don’t think you lie to people you love. I don’t think you send them off into dangerous situations on the basis of murky, cobbled-together information that isn’t really information at all. I don’t think you keep them scared all the time. I don’t think you respond to horrors like public beheadings with cowboy slogans that sound like they came from old John Wayne movies."
Posted by Paul Hina at July 21, 2004 12:23 AM