In and of itself, this story about the RNC editing Bush’s State of the Union speech for its recently-released commercial isn’t a big deal; this “controversy” represents your run-of-the-mill political sniping. After all, is there anyone who really thinks that campaign commercials aren’t edited?
Viewed in the larger context, however, this incident illustrates the fictional qualities of the Bush presidency. A Hollywood movie director could scarcely whip up a better production. From Operation Photo-Op to Healthy Forests, Bush is attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of conservatives and moderates alike.
Take a look at this gem from yesterday’s script:

I want to thank and congratulate the members of Congress for their hard work. You see, we have a responsibility in Washington, D.C. to solve problems, not to pass them on.

Not passing problems on? Of course not. That explains why the Bush administration has turned a federal budget surplus of 2.4% of GDP into a deficit of 4.3% of GDP in four short years. That’s keeping the problems away from our children.
Don’t be fooled simple-sounding speeches and elaborate stagecraft; when it comes to government policy, the devil is always in the details. When you examine the fine print, you’ll find that the administration is usually up to something quite different than it claims.

I was glancing through President Bush’s remarks on the Medicare bill, and came across this nugget:

Free countries don’t develop weapons of mass destruction. Free countries don’t attack their neighbors. Free countries listen to the hopes and aspirations of the people who live in those countries. America also believes that freedom is not America’s gift to the world, freedom is the Almighty’s gift to every person who lives in this world.

Interesting. Either America must not be a free country, or some other nation must have given us a nuclear arsenal large enough to obliterate the entire world.
Oh, and somehow our army also found itself camped in Iraq.

New technology, new dangers:

There was a bizarre hit and run that took place in San Francisco on Tuesday between a 3-year-old girl and a Segway. It may be the first accident of it’s kind locally involving the motorized scooter which happens to be banned on city sidewalks. ABC7’s Jim Weider reports supervisors aren’t happy to hear the suspect got away.
Three-year-old Ruby Bleskacek sustained cuts, bruises and a nasty bump on her head.
Police say this could be the Bay Area’s first injury accident by a Segway, known as a high-tech people mover. In 2002, Willie Brown and company helped usher them into San Francisco.
The child was walking outside her father’s Potrero Hill store on Tuesday when a Segway ran her down. Witnesses say it was traveling about 10 miles per hour.
Joel Bleskacek, father: “I was quite angry and I confronted him. I asked him why he was driving so fast during the crowded lunch hour on the sidewalk. He claimed my daughter jumped in front of him.”
The man fled the scene on his Segway. Police think he lives in the neighborhood.

Maybe not a pure hit-and-run incident, but why is the guy fleeing after hitting a three-year-old? And why didn’t anyone run him down?
Beware of those high-speed Segways.

As a free service to Resonance readers, I’ve conducted extensive research and amassed the following program schedule for the major news networks:
Prime-time news programming (7:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.)
CNN: Jacko arrest
MSNBC: Jacko arrest
FNC: Jacko arrest
E!*: Jacko arrest
*Not traditionally considered a news network, but by today’s standards it might as well be.

Stephen Roach (via Brad DeLong) thinks the surge in global trade, generally viewed as a driver of recent prosperity, is at risk of being derailed:

Indeed, there can be no mistaking the increasingly important role global trade has played in driving world economic growth in recent years. By our estimates global trade in goods and services now amounts to 25% of world GDP, up dramatically from the 19% share just ten years ago and an 11% portion in 1970. Over the past 17 years, 1987 to 2003, surging global trade has accounted for fully 33% of the cumulative increase in world GDP. By contrast, over the 1974-86 period, trade accounted for about 17% of the cumulative increase in world GDP. In other words, since the late 1980s there has been a virtual doubling of the role that trade has played in driving the global GDP growth dynamic. There can be no greater testament to the power of globalization.
Yet there are worrisome signs that the trade dynamic is now going the other way. After surging by a record 13% in 2000, global trade has entered one of its worst slumps in modern experience — average gains of just 2% over the 2001-03 period. That’s the weakest performance since the early 1980s and only a third of what we estimate to be a 6.5% long-term trend in global trade growth. Coming in the context of one of the mildest global recessions in recent history, this shortfall is all the more disconcerting. It suggests that there may be new forces coming into play that transcend the normal pressures of the business cycle.

Roach suggests the recent wave of outsourcing illustrates that labor has become more “fungible” than ever. Consequently, we may continue to see jobless recoveries in high-wage countries which may spark a political backlash against trade liberalization.

Roach notes five recent examples of setbacks on the trade front:

1. The breakdown in WTO ministerial negotiations in Cancun, Mexico.
2. The continuing fallout from the Bush administration’s tariffs on steel imports.
3. The Bush administration’s quotas on Chinese textiles and other anti-China rumblings in Congress.
4. U.S./European tensions on agricultural subsidies and disputes on other services.
5. Ongoing difficulties in reaching a consensus on bilateral and regional trade agreements.

Often these type of developments don’t get as much play in the media as they deserve. But they warrant attention, for they have a notable long-term impact on the economy.