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    Tuesday
    Aug162005

    Can’t She Just Give Bush Some Money?

    cindy_s.jpgQuote:   “Why do you make time for donors and not for me?”  Sign held by Cindy Sheehan, whose son died in Iraq, while the president’s motorcade drove to a Republican fundraiser in Crawford, Texas

    Figure of Speech:   alloiosis (al oy OH sis), the this-isn’t-that figure

    Sheehan’s alloiosis (Greek for “difference”) gives the president two rotten choices:  Meet with her and legitimize her anti-war protest, or admit defeat and cancel the fundraiser.  Her figure is a form of antithesis, weighing opposites.  Bush himself favors this kind of black-or-white argument, because it makes subtler forms of reasoning look immoral.

    Snappy Answer:  None.  Sorry, Mr. President, for once you can’t win with an antithesis.  Express  your sympathies and hope the woman leaves.  You could fly back to Washington.  But our soldiers depend on a Commander in Chief who can vacation without flinching.

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