Give George Bush credit. You might think the day he
acknowledges environmental and climate change will be the day he
can heat up one of those killer pretzels of his simply by the
power of the sun’s rays. However, the earth’s not the
only thing to have been feeling the heat – the environmental
record of the former oil man has become an electoral issue. And,
as with so many other issues, the Bush team has done a brilliant
job of obfuscating the facts. Bush was recently in Florida’s Everglades to tout his
“commitment to conserving Florida’s natural
beauty.” His administration has backed an $8bn conservation
project in the swing state that handed him the presidency. Though
the photo-op was a curious one – Bush was actually shown
cutting down trees – the Florida project is brilliant
electoral politics and helps to distract from the fact that he
approved the scrapping of a mandated clean-up of 161 mercury-
polluted streams, rivers and lakes in Florida alone. Meanwhile, John Kerry has run a disastrous campaign, allowing
the Republicans to brand him a flip-flopper on issues with which
he should be pounding Bush. To the delight of the Bushies, Kerry
denied owning an SUV only for reporters to point to his Audi
Quattro which Kerry explained away by weakly saying that it
belonged to his wife. Similarly, it seems incredible but Kerry’s war record
– a major asset in this Khaki election – has also been
successfully trashed. Republicans have questioned whether Kerry,
still walking around with Vietnamese shrapnel lodged in his body,
deserved his Purple Heart for bravery because he had not been
sufficiently wounded. The sheer audacity of the Bush team needs
little explanation; most went out of their way to avoid combat. It’s been an awful few months for Bush but he is still
neck and neck with his opponent, who has allowed himself to be
defined in the worst possible terms. The smearing of Kerry and
his record is crass and dishonest but, by George, it’s
working.ARCHIVE: 2nd week TT 2004
Thoughts of the Week
