Bad Publicity

I think that the death of former Arizona Cardinals safety Pat Tillman, killed in Afghanistan while fulfilling his duties as an Army Ranger, is going to be the tipping point in this year's election cycle. George W. Bush has a fair chance at staying in the White House as long as his poll ratings hover above 50%, but he's governed in a way that has left the country sharply divided.

From a sports column in The Washington Post today:

More than 700 members of the armed forces have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq since 9/11. Pictures of flag-draped coffins, photos of dead soldiers in newspapers and nightly television images of casualties are painful, as is the dispatch of a rare pro athlete dying. In the Vietnam War, one pro football player, Buffalo Bills lineman Bob Kalsu, was killed. In World War II, Navy pilot Nile Kinnick, the only University of Iowa player to win the Heisman Trophy, was killed. The Iowa football stadium is named for him.

A nation of celebrity-watchers, right or wrong, we snap to attention when an NFL player who rejected millions to serve his country is killed.

Escapists will no longer be able to avoid the fact that we're fighting a seemingly endless war, especially as sports coverage and newscasts have turned Tillman into an overnight icon. With so much riding on the shifting tides of public opinion, Bush can't afford the sort of negative reaction against the administration that Tillman's death will likely produce.

Comments

[viagrabuy]

Hello
Nice site! Wery Good! (Sry for my bad englesh)