As debate continues to burn over the influence that Michael Moore's smash hit "Fahrenheit 9/11" may have on the November election, Matthew d'Ancona has penned a striking column in the London Sunday Telegraph arguing that the relative truths of the movie aren't the issue at all. "The hawks have only themselves to blame for Michael Moore's success," he says, noting that the right-wing attacks against Moore have been in vain.

"The forensic demolition of Fahrenheit 9/11 which has already been carried out in the American press has apparently done nothing to diminish Moore's appeal or his popularity around the world. He has himself said that the film is not meant to be fair ... This is popcorn politics, militancy for the multiplexes. And, as such, it is extremely successful. Moore uses all the techniques of modern mass entertainment with supreme skill: comic intercutting, brilliantly-selected music, shocking images of civilian casualties, a laconic voiceover interspersed with scenes of untrammelled emotion. I confess that I found it gripping.

"Unlike Moore, I supported the destruction of the Taliban regime and the liberation of Iraq. But I also have to acknowledge the aplomb of his campaign, and the cunning of his strategy. He has not only touched a nerve; he has filled a vacuum. He has identified the feebleness of the campaign to persuade the public that the war on terror is necessary and exploited that weakness to the hilt."

He says Moore is exactly right to do so, given how badly the Bush administration has botched the ideological mission -- as well as the one on the ground in Iraq.

"Who can blame Michael Moore for seizing his chance? No war in modern history has been as badly sold to the public as this one. In private, the Prime Minister [Tony Blair] admits to colleagues that, in this respect, 'I have failed'. No Western politician, including Mr. Blair, has successfully produced a political narrative which transcends the old methods of spin developed in the 1990s and explains why the war on terror is a completely new kind of struggle ... to be prosecuted successfully, the war on terror will require durable public faith in politicians and the intelligence services that inform them: the very trust which has taken such a terrible beating before, during and after the Iraqi conflict. The anti-war lobby has the slick movies of Michael Moore. And what do we hawks have? The sickening images of Abu Ghraib, that's what.

"This is why it isn't enough to say that Moore manipulates the facts, or that he is a charlatan, or that his arguments are glib. The reality is that his methods are working, and working for a reason. He is the grizzled face of a culture in denial, the contrarian voice of the millions who would rather hate Dubya than confront the awesome threat that stalks our age."

D'Ancona sees the film's commercial success -- as well as Moore's utter lack of vision on the "big issues" -- as a hell of a wakeup call.

"His success is an urgent warning to those who support the war, who grasp its importance, to raise their game, and fast. Nitpicking is not the answer. It's the big issues that count. And it's there that Michael Moore has no answers. If he is so visionary, why is his objective -- to run Bush out of the White House -- so parochial? What would he do about the new horrors of our time? Dude, where's your sense of history?"

"Muqtada al-Moore"
Blogger Steven Den Beste, who studies military strategy and history, wonders whether Michael Moore "may, in the end, turn out to be the American Loonie Left's Muqtada al-Sadr." He predicts that the Moore moviegoing insurgency, which he believes really hates America, will ultimately hurt the Kerry campaign.

"One reason for al-Sadr's failure was strong suspicion among Iraqis that he was an Iranian puppet and served Iranian interests. LL's rallying around Moore's flag will end up delivering many unpalatable messages, and one of those will be that France was actually right all along. Moore is no French puppet, but his movie was blessed by France, with the Palme d'Or at Cannes...

"Moore has planted his flag smacko in the middle of the Holy City of anti-Americanism. To defend that position, the LL's will now vocally proclaim something many have long believed but avoided admitting: they hate America and everything it stands for. That is not a message that will sell well to the broad electorate. They will proclaim that they love this nation, but... and then make clear that they despise most of the people who live in it, and despise the very features of this nation that the majority of us see as its greatest virtues...

"Bush may be vulnerable to substantive criticism of his personal capabilities and his policies and motivation. There might be a rational and convincing argument to be made for voting for "anyone but Bush". But we won't find out in 2004. Michael Moore has done more than any other single man to guarantee that. Someone on the left may voice such an argument, but he'll be drowned out by rabid LL jihadists as they stridently deliver a message tailor-made to alienate the broad electorate in style of presentation, in attitude, in substance, and in underlying message."

But if most on the political right believe Moore's film is a mangled ball of political expediency, Den Beste floats a provocative conspiracy theory of his own regarding Moore's motives:

"If one was particularly cynical, one might entertain the suspicion that Moore secretly hates the left, and is laughing twice as hard. Not only is he getting filthy rich off them, and laughing all the way to his bank, he's also helping to engineer their marginalization, and laughing all the way to their political destruction."

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