No, the thing in Moore's movie that Bush needs to worry about most is the scene when an Iraq war vet sits next to his maimed comrades and says he used to be a Republican, but he's now committed to beating George Bush in November. Just like that, Moore's movie stops being a partisan rant, and suddenly lingers with the weight of people who aren't simply against Bush because they can't stand to listen to him on television: The campaign is now populated by voters who lived through Bush's lie in Iraq, and are carrying the message. (The guy next to me at the Woodinville 12 cineplex, where I journeyed to see the movie outside preach-to-the-choir Seattle, was crying.)
I think this is the most damning moment in the film for Bush because it's being replicated on the campaign trail. In the basement meeting room of a Doubletree hotel at a Kerry meetup in Bellevue last week, it went like this: Redmod resident Chris Kashfia, a husky 27-year-old with a gray stocking cap, a froggy voice, and a gash under his eye, got up from his seat in the back row, where he was sitting with his wife, walked to the center of the room, and told the crowd that he returned from a year's duty in Iraq in February. He was now committed to giving as much time as he could to defeating George W. Bush. He'd find the time between his 8-to-5 job, school, and the reserves. Kashfia's wife clasped his hand when he sat back down.
The crowd of Kerry supporters sitting in the semicircle at this, yawn, meetup (the night was otherwise punctuated by a report from the research committee to satisfied nods that Kerry was pro-choice) was, perhaps for the first time this campaign season, energized. Campaign 2004 was not going to be the yearly ritual of repeating the same old Democratic mantra: pro-choice/save basic programs/and did I mention pro-choice? Issues of war and peace were driving the mood, and this salt-of-the-earth veteran--from a Republican demographic--was on their side.
"Bush says he supported the troops," Kashfia told the Bellevue crowd. "That's absolutely false. I was there. There weren't enough troops. And now I'm back and he's cutting veterans' benefits."
Kashfia is reluctant to criticize the mission. "We were doing good things. I gave out water and food." But, he adds quietly: "We killed people's parents. And all the children see is our flag."
Kashfia' delivery is surprisingly calm--until he starts talking about Kerry's status as a vet. "I can't believe Bush is questioning Kerry's record. These are people who never served. Kerry did. I did." Later, Kashfia tells me he's never voted in a presidential election before.
Bush is in trouble not because Moore's movie is number one, but because the characters in Moore's movie are real.
