Press conference update
When I was watching the Rose Garden press conference I wrote about earlier today, I noticed that when Bush was asked about the “Mission Accomplished” banner on the aircraft carrier again, this time he denied that the White House had anything to do with the banner.
“The ‘Mission Accomplished’ sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished. I know it was attributed somehow to some ingenious advance man from my staff – they weren’t that ingenious, by the way.”
That was a lie.
Funny how the little stuff can sometimes trip you up bigger than the big stuff, isn’t it?
I coldn’t believe that when I saw it on the news!
His advance staff is famous and very well respected for the amazingly meticulous way they stage all the photo ops — most notably renting a football stadium’s worth of light to illuminate the statue of liberty — including the way they arranged the people wearing different color shirts behind the president on the Lincoln, they angle and time of day they scheduled the speech so they could get the best light and face the cameras away from land (which would have only highlighted how uncessesary that whole Top Gun stunt was) and stopping the whole damn boat so as to not nauseate the audience any more than necessary.
To imply that the sailors made the banner on their own — both because of precendent at every other public appearance and because of the conspicous lack of a Kinko’s anywhere on that boat — was preposterous.
A comment on Atrios was instructive on this:
Kids, I’m the creative director at an advertising agency. I’ve had to produce those signs before. From the photographs, it’s at least a 20′ by 5′ banner, with printing over a 4-color, screened-back image of an American flag, on vinyl, with grommets. There aren’t many places that can print to those specs, and those that can are going to ask for two weeks. This wasn’t produced aboard a ship, and probably wasn’t produced in San Diego, and it cost a good $3,500.
Adam, have you seen this week’s Newsweek cover story? Bush’s $87 Billion Mess: Waste, Chaos and Cronyism. Are journalists waking from their long slumber?
No lie is to big or to small for Mr. Bush