And you'll look like a DUMB@$$

A cute picture, but it totally misses the point, I would say intentionally misses the point of the comma comment. In spreading ignorance of what's really going on, the picture plays right into Bush's hands.

Meaning: Bush's comma comment is in code to the Christian Right, designed to be understood clearly by them (which it was, to be sure), and designed to be utterly misunderstood by everyone else (which, to look at this picture, it surely was).

Wake up. "Comma" was not an accidental choice of words. Wake up. Don't underestimate Rove, who certainly put this word in Bush's filthy mouth. Wake up. This has been going on for a while--just Wikipedia "Dog whistle politics" at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-whistle_politics if you're so sure you know differently. I'll wait...

Right. Wake up. It's worse than you thought. The "comma comment" alludes clearly to the saying "Don't put a period where God puts a comma." By which the Christian Right hears: "Ignore the setbacks--we have not yet even begun to kick the crap out of everyone else." And which the left imagines/pretends is mere inarticulation. It's not.

So do let's give up the misplaced snickering we've found so comforting, and START GETTING ANGRY. Wake up. Rove is smarter than all the Democrats except Bill Clinton, so we'd sure better saddle up and get with it or else. The forces of peace and goodwill and the rule-of-law are losing America--on the order of months, now, not decades--and all the world knows bloody well knows it but us.

I certainly get your point and agree that GW is entirely capable of cynically appealing to right wing Christians using code words. He's used that phrase himself, as a matter of fact. And I understand most religious conservatives to be sheeple mindlessly following their religious leader. ("Jesus Camp" even depicts Christian praying to his picture, a concept that totally freaks me out.) But the Religious Right is hugely upset with their handmaidens in the Republican Party for not producing on key hot button issues like gay marriage, school prayer and abortion. This time around, his base may not come through for him. I'm guessing even some conservatives must surely have a BS threshold.