You gotta love this guy.

Michael Moore spent autumn on his "Slacker Uprising" tour, crossing America campus-by-campus, working hard to get out the youth vote. He charged young people with the responsibility of changing their world! He called on 18 to 20 year olds to stand together during this time of crisis! He communicated his vision to the young with authority, strength, and boundless enthusiasm. Then, come election day, the young people of America resolutely arose from their sofas, turned off their Playstations, and with clear heads and thankful hearts, took a nap.

Now, Moore seems to think that he, rather than John Kerry, lost the presidential race to George W. Bush.

The front page of his website, which normally is full of clips from and links to Mike's rants and nutcase ideas, has been taken down and replaced with a strange collage-type picture of the president and the cryptic message "We're not going away," along with a small form where you can submit your e-mail address to join his mailing list.

The collage is made up of small portraits of soldiers who've died in Iraq. I'm not sure what the picture really says to the viewer, nor am I sure what the "artist" intended by it. I doubt Mike really understands it, either. After all, keep in mind, this is the same Michael Moore who said the following about the war in Iraq:

"I oppose the U.N. or anyone else risking the lives of their citizens to extract us from our debacle. I'm sorry, but the majority of Americans supported this war once it began and, sadly, that majority must now sacrifice their children until enough blood has been let that maybe -- just maybe -- God and the Iraqi people will forgive us in the end."

The small graphic below, when clicked, loads a larger image of the front page of www.michaelmoore.com, as it appears today, November 4, 2004.



I get the sense that Moore was totally taken off guard by the re-election of the president. I doubt he ever even considered the possibility that Bush would be re-elected. Moore must see himself as an infallible king-maker, and must have been sure that his deceptive movie would be all it took to usurp Bush's power. In fact, I doubt it ever crossed his mind that Americans might actually prefer Dubya to Kerry.

Look for Moore to break his silence in the next few days and abandon the sanitized campaign version of his rhetoric. For the past few months he's spoken of the American military in "brave fighting men" terms, and he's tried to actually seem patriotic rather than Anti-American. But make no mistake, Michael Moore does hate America. He hates us because we're largely conservative, we're religious (and primarily Christian), we believe in low taxes and responsible gun ownership and self preservation and personal accountability, and we support a president who acts in our national best interest rather than in his own political best interest. Soon, Mike will get back to trashing Americans, as he's done in the past.

Just you wait.