There's Something About W

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction," Vice President Dick Cheney remarked on August 26, 2002, in a statement that was echoed by nearly everyone in the Bush administration (including Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, and even Secretary of State Colin Powell). It turned out, of course, that the only thing "simple" was the statement itself and two years later WMDs in Iraq are still a no show. Squarely aimed at "undecided" voters, the moderate-toned There's Something About W from filmmakers Robin Chin, John Grimes, and Louise Rubacky, narrated by Peter Coyote, features archival footage of the Bush administration sexing up the argument for the war on Iraq, and one can't help but notice the disparity between the absolute conviction ("no doubt") of the claims and the subsequent absolute lack of evidence to support them. And it's that dangerous combination of stubbornness and arrogance--ultimately revealed to be ignorance--that should give voters pause come November 2. Iraq is just one of the areas that this "wry" look at the policies of the Bush administration covers--others include healthcare, education, jobs (as is widely noted, Bush will be the first president since Herbert Hoover to preside over a net loss of jobs on his four-year "watch"), the ballooning national debt ("that great sucking sound that we are all hearing," as Tom Andrews notes), security, and the environment. Viewers will hear plenty of straightforward analyses from the likes of New York Times columnist and economist Paul Krugman on Bush's tax cuts for the rich, Pentagon papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg on American neoconservative imperialism, and the Center for Public Integrity's Chuck Lewis on the trampling of civil rights under the Patriot Act. But the seriousness is nicely leavened with humorous observations from, among others, Michael Moore, Molly Ivins, Al Franken, Bill Maher, Will Durst, and Reno. Is this a partisan look at the Bush administration? Yes it is, but the interviewees here are not talking about shadowy conspiracies or engaging in character assassination; they're simply asking viewers to compare George W. Bush's promises (ranging from "No Child Left Behind" to a Medicare bill that cost far more than initially reported) with what he did (or more often didn't) accomplish. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (R. Pitman)