after the election, when bush spoke metaphorically of his intent to "spend" his "political capital," he confirmed what i suspected: he doesn't understand economics.
unless you're a banker, capital is not money. capital refers to assets—in other words, goods used to produce other goods and/or services. you don't spend it, you use it. even banks don't spend it: they lend it.
how does that relate to the middle east? because calling what he wants to spend "capital" is a false analogy, like the "road map to peace."
a real road map shows known roads. you use it to figure out where you are or to plan a route. you may choose a short route or a scenic route or a route with plenty of rest stops. in any case, the roads already exist before they get drawn on the map.
roads to israeli-palestinian peace were unknown. they couldn't be mapped. it's not like a road map at all. that's why calling it a road map is known as a false analogy. (and use of a false analogy is a logical fallacy.)
they could've called it "blueprint" or "flow chart" or maybe even "technical analysis," so why did they pick "road map?"
probably because "blueprint" sounded old-fashioned, and karl and condi wanted georgie-boy to sound hip and creative and original, and they didn't think many americans know what a flow chart is.
why does it matter if we don't know what a flow chart is?
because all of it—ALL of it—is marketing. they were preparing for the next election the whole time, and you can't sell us if you use words we don't know.
but that doesn't mean you can't confuse us or fool us.
look how georgie fooled us by purposely mispronouncing "nuclear."
you say you don't think it's purposeful? listen to his '94 debates against ann richards.
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