ABSTRACT
George W. Bush suffered the reputation of being one of the great wimps in American politics. Bush’s manipulative political playing with symbolic virility followed this cultural tradition. One might have thought that after nearly ninety years, the US press would have a more self-reflexive approach to choreographed role-playing by politicians. Most of the major media reacted to George Bush’s last-minute pardon of leading Iran-contra figures with something less than outrage. Bushs involvement with the contra operation was well documented. On the issue of illegal arms to the contras, the leading US newspapers seemed to have given Bush a pardon of their own. One might have thought that after nearly ninety years, the US press would have a more self-reflexive approach to choreographed role-playing by politicians. Economic Committee of Congress; and a polarization along lines of race, sex, and class that worsened throughout what is universally described as “the longest peacetime economic expansion in US history.”
