Why Can't Bush Be Smeared?

The Rhetorical Power of Transformative Life Narrative

In the midst of a bitterly polarized nation, Americans seem to have agreed on one thing: this is one of the nastiest campaigns in recent history. Yet, while the mud is being flung in both directions, it appears to have only stuck in one. Even as the President’s job approval ratings ebb and flow and the polls remain conflicted about the outcome of the election itself, Bush’s personal popularity has remained steady and relatively high.

Why does Bush appear to have emerge unscathed by an impressive array of charges about not only his gap-filled record as a National Guardsman but also of drunk driving convictions, possible cocaine use, and miscellaneous collegiate rowdiness even as Kerry struggles to recover from potent attacks on his war record?

The popular and partially correct answer to this question is that none of these charges are new. We’ve heard it all before, four years ago when Bush first ran for President. Even the controversial memos “unearthed” by CBS News didn’t really tell us anything we didn’t already know or suspect. Bush the Younger, when he was in fact young, was an irresponsible party-boy who sailed through life on daddy’s connections and a certain amount of charm.

But the question remains: Why haven’t these attacks ever had any effect on Bush’s personal popularity? Even when the charges first surfaced, each existed only to become “the scandal that never was” fading quickly before they took hold in the public’s consciousness.

The deeper answer lies in a dynamic that at first glance seems insignificant compared to Karl Rove’s other more obvious machinations but a dynamic that may in fact be one of the most important elements of Bush’s political existence. It is, on the surface, The Life of Bush, a carefully crafted story that, like a vaccination, intentionally offers up to the public a small dose of his scandalous past in order to inoculate them from charges of even more serious misdeeds. But on a more profound level, it is The Epic of W, a story with a simple yet powerful thread that resonates deeply with the American public – a narrative of transformation and redemption.

Quite simply, Bush’s story, as it’s been presented to the public ever since he first entered public life, is the classic tale of a wayward, ne’er-do-well youth who one momentous day, sees the light and who, with steely resolve and the love of a good woman, transforms himself into a devoted husband and father, dedicated churchgoer, and solid public citizen. He is a man who is all the stronger for coming through the fire.

Bush’s story is the stuff of legend, myth and Hollywood. In this incarnation, it has found its most effective political expression because it forces us to discount everything Bush did before his transformation. No attacks stick because he’s already admitted to us he was once, a long time ago, bad. At the same time it compels us to admire him all the more every time some new transgression is unearthed. The worse Bush was before his conversion, the better the man today. Bush didn’t have to fight the Viet Cong. He fought his own demons.

That Bush, an evangelical Christian, created this story of deliverance is not surprising. Nor should it be surprising that Americans of all different faiths find it appealing. Transformation and redemption have been core elements of the human narrative from our earliest days. Americans especially love repentant sinners. Witness the re-election of Marion Barry as Mayor of Washington D.C. after his conviction for cocaine possession and countless other rehabilitated televangelists and celebrities (Clinton, surprisingly for a man raised as a Southern Baptist, didn’t learn this lesson until it was too late. He should have crawled on his hands and knees and begged our forgiveness for Monica early on. We would’ve loved him even more.)

Bush has one other trump card. We Americans also love our scoundrels, rascals and cads. Bush’s earnestness is even more appealing (or perhaps more palatable to some of the less righteous) when quickly followed by his scampish grin that gives us just a hint of the bad boy that was. His genius at exploiting two of America’s most beloved archetypes should not be discounted. It’s why no one can seem to smear Bush and it’s what will probably get him re-elected.

Click here for analysis of other important political speeches.