Presidential Infallibility

Glenn Greenwald makes a good observation about the mindset of the Bush-loving crowd:

Hinderaker's deceit here is noteworthy because it illustrates the central propagandistic myth which really does lies at the heart of almost every terrorism-related debate we are having. It is a myth which the Bush administration propagates on almost every issue and which the media, inexcusably, almost never points out, even though it is extremely simple, clear and of central importance.

This principle is just axiomatic -- the fact that someone is accused by the Bush administration of being a terrorist or suspected by the administration of working with terrorists does not, in fact, mean that they are a "terrorist." There is a distinction between (a) being accused or suspected by the Bush administration of working with Al Qaeda and (b) actually being in cahoots with Al Qaeda and being a "terrorist."

But Bush followers simply do not recognize any such distinction. They literally operate from the premise of Presidential Infallibility. Thus, to them, if the Bush administration suspects that someone is a terrorist, then it means that they are a terrorist. To Hinderaker, the AP photographer is a terrorist because the Bush administration says he is. Hence, Hinderaker complains that AP is not "expressing any embarrassment that it has been publishing propaganda photos taken by an apparent associate of al Qaeda in Iraq".