Posted on 01/08/2006 6:58:23 AM PST by kellynla
There's a bear in the woods," began the most effective television commercial of Ronald Reagan's 1984 campaign for re-election. "For some people the bear is easy to see. Others don't see it at all."
This bit of political brilliance highlighted concerns about challenger Walter Mondale's suitability to be commander in chief. It played on the broader fear in the post-Vietnam era that the Democratic Party had gone soft on security and could not be entrusted with the nation's defense.
The bear spot, however, never mentioned national security or the Soviet Union, Democrats or Republicans, Mondale or Reagan. It didn't even mention an election.
It was an allegory, and a devastating one at that, reminding the American people that the leadership of one party was actively confronting a menace to the United States, while the leadership of the other party was, at best, incapable of recognizing that menace or, at worst, undermining efforts to advance American security interests.
Reagan trounced Mondale in one of the most lopsided presidential elections in American history, winning 49 of 50 states and 59 percent of the popular vote.
A handful of Democrats — Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Joseph Lieberman, for instance — seem to be cognizant of this history and the propensity for their party to be perceived as being weak on national security.
On this issue at least, they are appealing to an old and all but lost center of American politics and hearkening back to a Democratic foreign policy that vigorously advanced American interests.
The rest of the Democratic leadership, however, seems determined to rush headlong into a repeat of 1984.
It began last fall with the constant drumbeat for the immediate, or almost immediate or relatively immediate, withdrawal of all, or most or some, American combat forces from Iraq.
(Excerpt) Read more at mysanantonio.com ...
The political issue is whether Democrats can capitalize on that skepticism without corroborating the perception of weakness. Put another way, can they avoid pandering to the hard-left interests that have repeatedly spelled electoral disaster for them since 1968 and instead address the concerns of average Americans? Can they prove that they see the bear and have a strategy for victory?
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean already provided an answer when he said, "The idea that the United States is going to win the war in Iraq is just plain wrong."
And it came from Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid when he gloated to party activists, "We killed the Patriot Act."
Reid might have attenuated his partisan boast to say, "We forced the White House and the Republican-controlled Congress to consider greater protections for civil liberties in the Patriot Act." He might even have said, "We are working to fix a flawed yet essential Patriot Act."
Instead, Reid just killed it and tossed out the red meat.
As with Iraq, the point here is not whether a large number of Americans from a broad political spectrum are concerned about the erosion or potential erosion of civil liberties in the war on terror. They are.
The unavoidable political issue is that an even larger number of Americans has a greater concern that, given the opportunity, terrorists will kill more of their countrymen. And they believe that the Patriot Act, flaws and all, has been instrumental in preventing a repeat of Sept. 11, 2001, on American soil. As a political slogan, "We killed the Patriot Act" has all the electoral potential of "I am not a crook."
There is indeed a bear in the woods ... and in the desert and in the mountains and even, perhaps, in our own cities. And saying so doesn't compel Americans to surrender their right to dissent against their government or cede any other constitutional rights
To pretend it is not there, however, and to sublimate national security to score some cheap partisan points isn't just bad politics, it's also bad policy."
ya might want to delete the time from the title.
I see a campaign commercial by someone running against Harry Reid using that quote "We killed the Patriot Act", while showing the collapse of the WTC, and Bin Laden smiling. Oh and also include a clip of illegal immigrants running across the border with backpack nukes.
There has been 4 years that congress has had the opportunity to amend the few flawed portions of the Patriot Act without killing the entire measure as Reid gloats.
Was it coincidence or opportunistic that the NSA investigation and leak was launched just days before the key vote to renew the Patriot Act, and did those charges help bring down the vote?
I was just debating this topic with my brother. It seems Hillary will have to run fairly hard left to make sure the Howard Dean wing doesn't desert ship. She may be the heir apparent, but also damaged goods for the general election.
Post-Vietnam my backside, the DemonRats have been pro-enemy since at least the 1940s. They were embracing every spy and communist thug then. "McCarthyism" is the ulitimate dirty word, God forbid you should root out and stop the enemies of your country.
Does this explain the myopic refusal to allow bear hunts in many parts of the country?
Where, exactly, was Mrs. Clinton on the issue of national security during the co-presidency we endured from 1992-2000?
And it came from Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid when he gloated to party activists, "We killed the Patriot Act."
Aren't they just brilliant - two of the Democrat leaders and they act like this.....utterly unbelievable. Harry Reid the yayayaya gottcha school yard bully and Dean, simply a dazzling useful idiot.
If ever a nation needed to rid it’s self of deplorable politicians, it can start with these two – word on the street is that Nancy Pelosi already has her pink slip………
Terrorism=Saddam=Arafat=simple minded liberals. Bring on all technology that will stop terrorism. The President is well within his legal and Constitutional rights to protect America....the latter is all we need to know.
Maybe Karl Rove could re-work the commercial with a snake, instead of the bear. The message is still relevant!
The bear is still in the woods though he's lost a little weight and right now there's this funny looking guy with a turban in front of him screeching like a banshee.
America gets it which is why Kerry had to pretend he was behind what Bush was doing even though he wasn't.
I hate to say it, but as much as I admire this president personally, there is nobody on his team who could have come close to producing anything as creative and effective as that Bear spot.
I hope that the the GOP has someone somewhere waiting in the wings who will do a better job of communicating that message than the Bush team did.
Karl Rove has never come up with a TV ad even close to that one.
"There has been 4 years that congress has had the opportunity to amend the few flawed portions of the Patriot Act without killing the entire measure as Reid gloats"
In the upcoming election I'm hoping a few weak-kneed RINOs get the axe. I'd take a few years in the minority so long as we cleared out the sissymarys.
They ought to update the commercial to:
There's a cobra in the desert...
Bump
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