Sudden cloud is just what Bush didn't need right now (mad cow disease)

The Washington Post | 12/29/2003 | Mike Allen in Crawford, Texas

[Utah Girl]

The discovery of mad cow disease in the United States has tilted the political landscape at the start of President George Bush's re-election year by injecting uncertainty into a fragile economy and drawing scrutiny to his handling of an industry that was a financial and political ally in the last election, analysts in the two main parties say.

White House officials had sounded ebullient as they headed into the holidays at a time when economic indicators were turning up, Saddam Hussein was in captivity and a new Medicare law had just been signed. Now, the Administration will start 2004 under the type of sudden economic cloud that Bush aides had expected would come only from a terrorist attack.

Bush has closer ties to ranching than to any other industry besides oil, and Democrats seized on this new avenue for attacking Bush as a captive of business. Howard Dean, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, said that it showed "the complete lack of foresight by the Bush Administration once again".

Dan Glickman, agriculture secretary under Bill Clinton and now director of Harvard University's Institute of Politics, said Bush had just weeks to come up with a plan for more rigorous livestock tracing and testing. He suggested Bush bring together representatives of science, consumers and the industry early next month - when his aides had hoped to focus on the coming State of the Union address.

[Utah Girl]

What? Mad Cow Disease brought down John Major in Britain? My oh my, how the media is grasping at straws...And I just read that the cow in question was brought into the US seven years ago, and just who was in charge back then???

[RLK]

As much as the Bushs disgust me, they have nothing to do with mad cow disease. Assertion to the contrary is a stupid and cheap shot.

[Hugin]

From the way the media is carrying on you'd think people were dropping like flies from this.

[microgood]

On the MSNBC web site the story takes up more room than the earthquake in Iran.

[Utah Girl]

Of course it does. Anything that the media can do to get at President Bush, they will do.

[dighton]

The discovery of mad cow disease in the United States has tilted the political landscape ...

Passive voice, dishonestly employed. Oldest gimmick in the world.

Translation: We hope this nails him.

Death warmed over.

[non-anonymous]

Howard Dean: blah blah blah "the Bush Administration once again".

I know "X: if X bad, then bush's fault" is the formula for the day, but seriously, is this all Democratic politicians have to say? Granted I'm still extracting myself from a public-education-induced liberal funk, and I'm pretty young, but I don't ever remember politics being so unenlightening and uninformative. < /rant >

[cherry]

I was just thinking today how overblown all this is....

after-all, we have definite scientific evidence that smoking will eventually make you very sick, if not kill you outright, yet we sell cigarettes everywhere....

not that I want any spongiforms in my beef, and we have done a poor job at detecting this disease ( we have done 20,000 random samples and western Europe has done 10 million?).

[D-fendr]

"Sudden cloud..."

Wishful thinking bullsh*t.

[Atchafalaya]

No flies in my house so there must be a plague upon the land. When in danger run in circles scream and shout!

[dighton]

Memo to self, not passive voice.

Gimmick anyway: landscape tilted through wishful thinking.

[Atchafalaya]

40,000 people (?)=a cow!?!?

[LibWhacker]

You know, the seven dwarves might be a little more credible if they came up with some of these criticisms before a newsworthy event drew everyone's attention to it. But no, they're reacting to the news just like everyone else; i.e., if they had been in office, it's a certainty the outcome wouldn't have been any different (as if the president is responsible for a single cow going mad).

[Atchafalaya]

Extract your ass and have a good life!!! I did .

[Hugin]

It's like the dreaded West Nile Virus. A disease with flu-like symptoms that a few dozen people contracted and a handful died from. Every night on the news they showed maps with red sploches showing every case in the country. Meanwhile the flu kills 30,000 Americans every year, and we mostly just treat it as routine. There's a bad flu going around. Hope I don't catch it, can't afford to miss work. That's it.

[Atlantic Friend]

I totally agree with you, linking the Mad Cow disease outbreak with President Bush (or any other, for that case) is really far-fetched. Mad Cow disease has more to do with the food given to the cows - frankly,when you read the media these days you'd think the President and his trusted aides had roamed the country, injecting the disease into unsuspecting herbivores...

As for the financial impact for the farmers, it's true it could be huge. The loss of foreign markets is one thing, but the hardest part when we had an outbreak in France was the loss of consumers' confidence. In my rural region, the sales went down 30 to 45% because people switched to other kinds of meat, and that really hurt the farmers.

The good thing is, five years after the outbreak, the farmers were able to turn the tide. For example, they banned animal proteins from the cows' food, and worked with slaughterhouses and food distribution chains to ensure total traceability. Being able to find out where the beef came from was a huge confidence-booster for the consumers.

Given the proverbial Yankee ingenuity, I know US farmers will work their way around Mad Cow disease as well as their French counterparts.

By the way, greetings from the other side of the Atlantic to you Freepers, and best wishes for 2004 !

[McGavin999]

The media is trying desperately to whip this up into a crisis but the people aren't falling for it. McDonald's still has lines, people are buying beef at the markets, nobody is panicing.

[Kevin Curry]

Howard Dean, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, said that it showed "the complete lack of foresight by the Bush Administration once again".

As opposed to Howard Dean, who has been talking about this issue since . . . . since . . . . since . . . . well, since today.

[Caipirabob]

I'd go as far as to suggest that PETA or other similar enviro-groups are responsible for "Mad Cow" popping up here. They've gone as far as to "fake" endangered species data to stop development and PETA has already resorted to what I would call a "terror attack" on small children with their "your mommy kills animals" campaign for fur wearing parents.

Nope, my suspicion lies with those who's specific agenda would be achieved by such an occurrence. I believe we should be rounding up these freaks who put animals ahead of humans before they do even more damage.

[Quiller]

PETA? You mean People Eating Tasty Animals?

Call me chauvanist, but I'd always waited for one of their "babe in a cage" protests to come to town, and then when one did I was on the road and missed it.