For 30 months, 9/11 was a huge political blessing for George W. Bush.
This week, the media halo fell off.
Within the space of a few days, culminating with his testimony to the
Sept. 11 commission Wednesday afternoon, former counterterrorism chief
Richard Clarke did serious damage to a public-relations scam that the White
House has been running for two and a half years.
We may forget just how badly President Bush was doing until Sept. 11,
2001. That morning, a front-page Philadelphia Inquirer story told of dire
political straits; his negative rating among the nation’s crucial
independent swing voters stood at 53 percent, according to the latest
survey by nonpartisan pollster John Zogby.
On Sept. 12, Bush’s media stature and poll numbers were soaring.
Suddenly, news outlets all over the country boosted the president as a
great leader, sometimes likening him to FDR. For many months, the overall
media coverage of President Bush was reverential.
With intimidation in the air, all but a few mainstream journalists
tamped down criticisms and lacquered on adulation. A kind of war-mentality