The Passion of the Bush
at the New York Times writes about the the DVD being released to counter the DVD release of Fahrenheit 911. 300,000 copies of George W. Bush: Faith in the White House will be distributed free to churches, but Rich calls this a must-see for all of us.
More than any other campaign artifact, it clarifies the hard-knuckles rationale of the president's vote-for-me-or-face-Armageddon re-election message. It transforms the president that the Democrats deride as a fortunate son of privilege into a prodigal son with the moral clarity of an old-fashioned biblical prophet. Its Bush is not merely a sincere man of faith but God's essential and irreplaceable warrior on Earth. The stations of his cross are burnished into cinematic fable: the misspent youth, the hard drinking (a thirst that came from “a throat full of Texas dust"), the fateful 40th-birthday hangover in Colorado Springs, the walk on the beach with Billy Graham.
… As for the actual president, he is shown with a flag for a backdrop in a split-screen tableau with Jesus. The message isn't subtle: they were separated at birth.
