catapult magazine

i was reading an article in the post today and couldn’t help but think back to the hollywood presidency (http://www.cultureisnotoptional.com/discuss/viewtopic.php?t=496) discussion we had—it was about how bush may be paying a price in these debates (despite the attempts to take any actual “debating” out of the equation and reducing the unexpected or uncontrollable elements to as close to zero as possible) because in his insular world of stage managed public appearances (his “hollywood presidency” where he has the hard task of answering questions like “mr. president, how can we best help get you re-elected?” or “we love you!”) he has not had to deal with any of the hard questions, let alone in front of people. it’ll be interesting to see what happens tonight…although i won’t be home to see it. it’ll be interesting to read about it later, maybe. :) or listen to it. itunes is offering the debates as free downloads, by the way, for any itunes junkies.

by the way, the post article is here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16131-2004Oct7.html?nav=hcmodule

related to this subject is this excellent guardian/salon article that shows how the Bush administration no longer needs to cultivate its relationship with traditional media because it has other ways to get its message out:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/salon/story/0,14752,1330975,00.html