: What national polls mean…More on the argument for war…
One of the most interesting political phenomena in America involves the intersection of the political structure of the presidency and modern, instant communication (and the permanent archive of communication): Every word a president speaks creates policy.
This notion undergirds Thomas Friedman’s contentions about the four reasons (I called them “arguments”) for war that he discussed last week. By selling the stated reason rather than the moral reason or right reason, Bush may have engaged in poor rhetoric. It “worked” in the short term, but may cause a political problem in the long term (much like his father’s “read my lips” line from the 1988 nominating convention).
John Dean outlines the potential problems, and the rhetorical sources, in his FindLaw column for CNN.
