"Some seem to believe"

Today President Bush used a speech to a foreign audience, the Israeli Knesset, to paint Democrats as soft on international terrorism by likening them to those who appeased Nazis in the 1930s.

Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.

The implication of "some" was clear - Bush was caricaturing Barack Obama's position that the US needs to seek diplomatic solutions to differences with Iran. In case anybody had failed to understand the attack, White House aides stated privately that it was directed against Obama and other Democrats.

When Bush was lambasted by Democrats for the stunt, WH spokeswoman Dana Perino ridiculed the idea.

I would think that all of you who cover these issues and have for a long time have known that there are many who have suggested these types of negotiations with people that President Bush thinks we should not talk to. I understand when you're running for office you sometimes think the world revolves around you -- that is not always true and it is not true in this case...I'm not going to get into '08 politics. The speech was not about '08 politics. If they want to try to make it about '08 politics -- and obviously be helped by the media -- so be it. But the President is President  of the United States.

So, was it an over-reaction to assume that the President was politicizing foreign policy when he compared "some" to Nazi-appeasers?

My review of occurences of the phrase "some seem to believe" and similar expressions at the White House website(*) shows that the only likely interpretation is that Bush was belittling Democrats. I've found a few joking references to some people's assumptions about Bush, plus an occasional neutral (i.e. non-polemical) mention that some believe this, others that. In the great majority of cases, though, George Bush's references to the beliefs of "some" people are polemical and condescending if not dismissive. Frequently the formulation introduces a straw-man argument. Almost always they are partisan references to Democratic critics. Here is a characteristic example among many such:

"Now, some would say, protect yourselves by withdrawing from the world."

One of the most remarkable patterns I discovered is that Bush uses these "some" formulations (whether in prepared speeches or off-the-cuff remarks) in regard to a very narrow range of topics: Iraq/Afghanistan; the 'Global War on Terror'; creating democracies in the Middle East; Social Security privatization; tax breaks; education (NCLB and private-school vouchers); and immigration reform. On every one of these topics except the last, Bush has been heavily criticized by Democrats. Indeed he uses "some" formulations most commonly in defending his most unpopular proposal of all, the 2005 attempt to dismantle Social Security. It's clear that "some" stands in almost always for "Democratic critics" of George W. Bush.

There are only a few exceptions, and these are telling. First, Bush has used the expressions "some people think/say" a total of three times to refer to those who disagree with his immigration policy. It's the only time one of these vague formulations is directed against Republicans - not surprisingly, given that it's one of the only issues where Republicans in Congress have ever criticized Bush.

The only other exceptions are two occasions when Bush claimed he takes the high road in political discourse: in his 2001 Inaugural speech ("Some seem to believe that our politics can afford to be petty because, in a time of peace, the stakes of our debates appear small."); and in talking to the Congressional Democratic caucus in early 2007:

"You know, I welcome debate in a time of war, and I hope you know that. Nor do I consider anybody's -- nor do I consider a belief that if you don't happen to agree with me you don't share the same sense of patriotism I do. You can get that thought out of your mind, if that's what some believe."

It could hardly be clearer that when Bush uses a "some" formulation in a political context, he's almost always trying to rebut Democratic critics of his policies.

(*) The expressions whose use by Bush I catalogued were: "some seem to believe"; "some think"; "some believe"; "some say"; "some would say"; "some people believe"; "some people think"; and "some people say".