Only himself to blame

Froomkin gets to the heart of the matter regarding the uproar over the DP World deal.

It's not often that President Bush gets a taste of his own medicine. But it's happening now as Bush defends his administration's decision to turn over operations at six U.S. seaports to an Arab company.

He stands accused of being weak on national security, insufficiently fearful of terrorism, and out of touch with the American public. And he's operating in a political climate where nuance and details make a poor defense.

This exactly right. As we noted earlier, the political damage resulting from this UAE/ports deal is nothing more than the fruits of Bush's own labors:

George W. Bush has spent five years nurturing and appealing to the basest emotions of the Republican base. At the beginning of his "war on terror," he actually described it as a crusade. The right wing noise machine has assisted him in conflating the word "Arab" with the word "terrorist." Did he not notice that this was happening?

Just days ago, beloved GOP icon Ann Coulter appeared at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, and referred to Arabs as "ragheads." She received a standing ovation. Now, Bush thinks his base is going to sit still for letting a company owned by the UAE government manage American ports?

The president has been wildly successful in whipping up a thick meringue of fear in the American psyche. He has used this fear to sell us everything from budget deficits to torture to warantless wiretapping. It is disingenous in the extreme for Bush to pretend now that he does not understand why people would be reluctant to hand port operations over to a government with stronger ties to terrorism than Iraq ever had.