In the 2008 Presidential election, the Democratic party and its nominee, Barack Obama, made a conscious decision to run their campaigns as if their opponent — in every race, from President to dog-catcher — was the outgoing President, George W. Bush. They explained every problem, anywhere in America, no matter how trivial and no matter how disconnected from actual federal governance, with the simple admonition: “It’s Bush’s fault!”. It was both dishonest and tiresome but it was, alas, effective.
It was also, on occasion, rather amusing to observe the stretches of imagination that otherwise seemingly rational people would employ to make that nonsensical connection. It’s hard to argue against that kind of willful ignorance….
18 June 2009
There is a breaking news story about a Continental flight from Brussels to Newark being flown by the first officer because the pilot died. Since the first officer is fully-qualified to fly the plane — and since this was an overseas flight and therefore had a relief pilot on-board anyway — this is a non-story as far as flight safety is concerned. But still, it is news.
What’s most interesting is that I happened to scroll down to the comments on the story at the New York Times web-site and encountered the following:
Aren’t the pilots supposed to be subjected to health exams. Was this a sudden issue, one his doctors didn’t foresee? Sounds to me like another example of the FAA, or whatever organization that is suppose to be overseeing this industry, not doing their job. Of course we, the U.S., had 8 years of the Bush Administrations, which was worthless, or a disgrace to our country.
Oh, yeah. I had forgotten…
It’s Bush’s fault!
© Copyright 2009, Augustus P. Lowell