Real People Aren't Welcome

So the President is getting his act together on Social Security (in a manner of speaking) and taking it on the road in a 60-day, 60-stop barnstorming tour. His advisors say they want to get Dubya in front of real people, outside the Beltway, to talk up private savings accounts. Apparently, however, real people do not include folks who don't meet the White House profile. At Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, there were no general public tickets distributed for the Bush visit.

This, IMHO, is the ultimate hypocrisy. We all know that campaign events are exquisitely stage-managed to produce the sound bites and photo ops the political operatives want to be the message of the day. And it was somewhat disconcerting when the Bush-Cheney Campaign prevented non-supporters -- those who had not contributed or volunteered -- from attending campaign rallies. (The Republican National Committee even required event-attendees to sign endorsement forms that pledged their support for the re-election of President Bush.) But now, we are talking about the President of the United States, who is supposed to represent all Americans. It is just wrong to limit the audience to sychophants, but apparently only hard-core Republican Domers get to see Dubya at old Notre Dame.

 Posted by glenn