anyone believe this?
March 15, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - First lady Laura Bush and the president's mother, Barbara Bush, are now openly "questioning" the direction of President Bush's campaign team, a stunning new report claims.
With national polls showing the once-invincible Bush in a dead heat against Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the two powerful Bush women are among many White House advisers fearful that the 2004 re-election team isn't up to the task. Barbara Bush "does not want to see her family go through a '92 thing again," according to two well-connected Bush aides quoted in Time magazine.
The Time report notes a series of missteps and challenges facing the Bush-Cheney re-election team as it heads into the fall campaign season. One recent blunder came last week when Bush was excitedly preparing to appoint Nebraska millionaire Anthony Raimondo as his new national "jobs czar." But Bush had to backtrack when Kerry pointed out that the man laid off 75 U.S. workers in 2002 to build a $3 million factory in China. NY Post
DUBYA, BLOW YOUR HORN
Are the Bush folks up to it?
So far, it seems not.
Democrats don't think Bush should be permitted to talk about national security, and they've sought to shift the debate to the economy.
To hear the Dems tell it, America's economy is on its last legs.
Only one problem: It ain't true!
In fact, the economy is doing just fine in numerous areas.
And Team Bush - starting with the president himself - must shout that point at the top of his lungs.
What Bush's stewardship - particularly his tax-cut plan - has done for the economy is itself remarkable.
Consider:
* The recession, which in essence began with the popping of the high-tech bubble during President's Clinton's second term, ended relatively quickly once Bush got to the White House.
* Despite the jolt of 9/11, growth has not once since fallen into the red.
* Indeed, during Bush's tenure, America's economy grew at its fastest quarterly rate in 20 years - a positively sizzling annualized 8.2 percent.
* Manufacturing activity has risen to its highest level in nearly two decades.
* After-tax incomes soared 8.4 percent in 2001.
* Worker productivity is near a 20-year high.
* More folks own homes than ever.
* Last year, the Dow rose 20 percent; NASDAQ zoomed up 50 percent.
* Inflation, interest rates and mortgage rates are near historic lows.
* Most economists in a Wall Street Journal poll last week projected growth in '04 at a more-than-healthy 4 percent.
* That beats last year's solid 3.1 percent rate, and '02's respectable 2.2 percent.
Yes, many jobs were lost. But much of that is attributable to the Clinton-era high-tech crash, 9/11 and the rapid growth in productivity (a good thing).
Anyway, the economy today is generating jobs: Last month marked the sixth consecutive month of increased employment. And the jobless rate (5.6 percent) is actually below the average for the '70s, '80s - and '90s, Bill Clinton's days of wine and roses.
Americans can be forgiven for faulting Bush on the economy: That's all they've been hearing from the press - and Team Bush has hardly mustered a response.
With the '04 race now in full swing, Bush & Co. are going to have to work like the dickens to correct the record.
This time, it's not the economy, stupid.
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/editorial/20802.htm