Tuesday's Canandaigua visit

Well, I'll do my duty here if for no other reason than this repeat visit of Bush to our region bare stirred a ripple except for the shudders of ecstasy among our Rochester media corps.

"When I saw that video, I wept." No friends that wasn't Bush talking about Abu Graib pictures or anything to do with our military.(As far as I know he didn't set foot on VA territory, a scant hundred yards from where he was addressing a hall packed with his media harem(half the crowd) selected somebodies with tickets, some chosen few students.)

Before leading the limo charge into the gauntlet of state troopers and secret service men Bush met "a buddy" from his last trip, a basketball hero with autism. The best photo op of the day, before the dark hail and tremendous winds started up, was of Bush hugging the hero, the basketball hero, that is. I guess you can't take the cheerleader out of the man(the second part of the phrase sounds a bit off color). The video of the high scoring feat was what Bush referred to as inspiring real tears.

Well, anyway according to the paper nothing but awestruck spectators and dutiful but awestruck protesters lined the streets(I'd like to see some photo evidence of that, the sign the senior home put up in welcome was ripped down by hail then restored like the flag at Iwo Jima). Bush did not say much anyway but left it to other presenters and he met with some war veteran families who were not unsympathetic I gather.

The fact that the weather dampened the photo shoots really says it all. Nothing to see, move on. Nor did it dampen the rage of the kids forced to carry loads of books without benefit of bags, some from the market a mile away because the useless media camp followers scarfed up the school parking spots. Ours is a successful intelligent public school so Bush had little time to walk the twenty feet into any classroom of his choice. The cafeteria was brimming with pork ribs, cajun food and other Finger Lake delicacies for the Emperor and his retinue. The creamed corn and cold gravy was probably kept locked up in the basement.

What a treat it must have been to gawk and stammer at this event and note the colorful license plates.
However if you were at a distance coming out for your mail and forgot the president was in town, the red laser dots would play over your chest, forehead and private parts from the S.S. snipers deployed for the folksy occasion.

This entertaining ceremony of greatness lacked some of the charm of a July 4th Firemen's Parade but the desultory WH choreographing never fails to wow the locals graced by the unique privilege, caps in hand, bowed heads, of beholding their lord.

No one asked how much it cost in trooper donuts, lost thruway tolls while the entire stretch was shut down, lost school hours, salaries for the retinue and- dear God- the cost in gas- all paid for from our humble tribute to a non-functioning government watched over by a sycophantic press.

All in all an odd waste of time, a going through the motions, a weak tokenism except for the weeping perhaps, an weather dulled event for the scrapbook of goggle eyed correspondents.

As far as impressing anyone beyond the scripted plug for the Rx fiasco, Bush pretty much escaped sinking then but saved his best peevish disconnect quotes for a testy slapdown of a senior at another location, another day.

There was a protest by a student far away in town. He was paternalistically interviewed and condensed to a content empty snippet. The larger experienced protest was off toward the senior home end of town late in the afternoon, followed by a prayer vigil politely omitting the exorcism since Bush was well on his way home to bed.

Barf. I can't keep it up. Or down. No one I met had anything but criticism of the visit, but then they weren't being favored by the media for telling them what they were required to hear if they ever wanted to remain on the GOP visitation map.

And did he or did he not succeed in pronouncing Canandaigua? I think there is a news lockout on that.

the lake when I was in high school. That area has changed a lot in some ways - and it has stayed the same in many ways as well.

It is still a relatively small, rural area in Central NY State. I can see there being some conservatives in that area, indeed some of my family who still live up in the Farmington area are fundy wingnuts.

But why have the president visit such a small town to talk about Medicare RX programs at a college? Why not visit some nursing homes - why not visit hospitals and invite seniors to talk about what is right and what is wrong with the bill?

Two answers that come to mind:

1. The shithead that we have for president does not really care how the plan is working for people. Its the windfall for the drug companies that he is interested. He is not interested in hearing what real people who suffer because of his incompetence have to say.

2. He is looking to shore up some youthful republican base in Sen. Clinton's adopted home state. Make no mistake - is in rural NY State there is a significant fundy conservative base.

significantly because most of the richer, conservative kids are there and not too restive compared to the community college on the lake. It was not chosen for being the better location but for the people logistics although he disrupted and shoved aside the students there. At a college, especially a plebeian community college, he was sure to get protests from many directions.

There is a wide diversity in the region with the rural and redneck variety merging with lakeshore villa lords, some millionaires, to make an overall reddish bent as is true of most of upstate outside the big cities. But we have good Democratic representation even in small towns where moderates and Dems come together. The blend moderates everyone and lack of trouble is a big sell for a beleaguered WH.

Even so, Bush used a wide variety of human PR shields, the autistic athlete, the war mothers, the seniors, all trumping the easy going outreach to the real Canandaigua locals. It was a siege without besiegers except for controlled protesters kept at a distance.

Your why not? questions could be multiplied to no avail. Bush dares not depart from the script and it is not populism, it never was. It is all an advertising firm fabrication and nothing else saves them from political ruin. Dems like Hillary barely appreciate their virtual monopoly on true outreach campaigning.
When the show comes to town, people like us who have heard of this, see immediately how it just is, in the full force of arrogant disconnect, effortlessly rolling over the setting.