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Reagan: It's time to strike back
DodgeGlobe.com ^ | January 30, 2004 | By Michael Reagan

Posted on 01/30/2004 10:00:31 PM PST by 11th_VA

Hatred of President Bush is what drives the Democratic candidates for their party's presidential nomination, says Larry Sabato, the widely respected political observer at the University of Virginia ­ and he thinks it's time for President Bush to wake up to that fact and go on the offensive. "The Democrats have dominated the news media ­ every channel, every hour, with the exception of the State of the Union address," he says. "Democrats' unity of opposition to Bush on every issue has kept the campaign a symphony rather than a cacophony, building toward a crescendo of anti-Bush fervor. The Democrats are pumped. The Bush White House appears blissfully ignorant of that reality, at least early in the campaign season."

He's right. Back in 1996, when Bill Clinton was running for re-election, the Democrats started very early in the campaign to spend a lot of money to derail any Republican's chance of winning. It was the smart thing to do and it worked.

This year it's important that people be reminded that there are two primary campaigns going on, side-by-side with the Democratic primaries there are also Republican primaries.

But it's the Democrats who get all the media attention. Every day. Edwards gives his same speech, Kerry gives his same speech, and Dean gives his same speech: "down with America, down with the president" and all the rest of that demagogic claptrap.

The President of the United States, however, gets almost no time at all. If I were the President at this stage, I'd be showing up for the primaries. I would have been in Iowa and New Hampshire, and I'd be in Missouri and South Carolina and every other state holding primaries.

He should show up on primary nights, thank the Republicans who voted for him. and discount what all these people are saying. Instead, what have we been getting? Six hours of "America sucks, the president is a stupid idiot, America sucks." Six solid hours of that filth.

You get around that by having the President show up on primary night, thank the people who voted for him and set the record straight. Being President, he will get air time and we won't have to listen to six unbroken hours of slander against him and his party. He can start now to demolish all the untruths, blatant lies and distortions about him being peddled by the Democratic demagogues.

When Senator Kerry attacks the President for being allegedly dominated by all those evil special interests President Bush would have an opportunity to point out that Kerry's party is totally owned by special interests. They couldn't exist for one minute without the financial and political support of the trial lawyers, the abortion industry, big labor, the teacher's unions, the radical environmentalist movement and the rest of the motley crew who own the Democratic party lock, stock and barrel.

What Kerry is saying is that the Republican "special interests," which is growth and the economy, must go so he can bring his special interests to the White House and pay off the trial lawyers and the abortion industry and all the rest for their support.

All this garbage is all going unanswered and it needs to be rebutted by the President. Five Democrats, three of whom shouldn't even be in the race, are getting all the publicity bad mouthing the President. He's getting none.

The American people must be warned that if they vote for John Kerry or any other Democrat the war in the Middle East will end there and begin here. You won't have to worry about body bags coming back from Iraq because they'll be coming home from the mall.

Vote for the Democrats and the economy will turn sour. They are anti-business which is where the 401K' s of millions of middle class Americans are invested. But the Democrats attack the very source of our 401K retirement funds ­ business. Most of our financial resources are invested in the market, and these people want to ruin the market, ruin the economy and lose the war.

And nobody is in a better position to tell these truths to the American people that President Bush. He should get out there on the campaign trail now.

Mike Reagan, the eldest son of former president Ronald Reagan, is heard on more than 200 talk radio stations nationally as part of the Radio America Network. Comments to mereagan@hotmail.com for Mike.


TOPICS: Editorial; Philosophy; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bush2004; gwb2004; michaelreagan; sabato
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To: KAUAIBOUND
But to attribute the economic boom of the '90s to the dotcoms is to ignore the incredible jump in the S & P or the Dow, "the old economy". The Dow was just above 3800 ...at the beginning of 1995. Today, it finished at 10,488. This is an 11.2% annual rate of return on price alone.

The attribution is just a facile way of protecting one's own cherished notions.

81 posted on 01/31/2004 3:19:08 AM PST by Huck (Hold on to your wallet--the President's awake!)
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To: 11th_VA
GOP, The republicans, are assholes.

The guts are gone, stay alert!

They are mealy mouth pieces of mush from donkey dung!

You couldn't put me in the same room with them!

They are rotting!

82 posted on 01/31/2004 3:25:21 AM PST by RIGHT IN LAS VEGAS
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To: nopardons
Your husbands a legend on Wall Street...........GASP, are you Andrea Mitchell???? LOL - The thought of Andrea reading FR!
83 posted on 01/31/2004 3:26:35 AM PST by Elkiejg (Clintons and Democrats have ruined America)
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To: RIGHT IN LAS VEGAS
EEEGAD - that's pretty strong. If you feel that way about GOP - what are your feelings about RATS?
84 posted on 01/31/2004 3:27:51 AM PST by Elkiejg (Clintons and Democrats have ruined America)
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To: Anubus
Of course timing is everything.

Yeah, and it's beginning to remind me of the final days of the 1962 season when Walt Alston held back Don Drysdale from the third and deciding game of the playoffs with the Giants because he needed him to start the World Series against the Yankees.

Sorry to say it, but if I were a betting man right now, my money would be on JFK II.

85 posted on 01/31/2004 3:30:16 AM PST by Vigilanteman
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To: Elkiejg
RATS?!!!!

Stay at the beach,

enjoy the time,

leave the rant to me!

REPUBLICANS?????????????????

what a joke

86 posted on 01/31/2004 3:43:28 AM PST by RIGHT IN LAS VEGAS
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To: Sonny M
Personally, I think Bush should start buying ad time from right before the Dem convention, and then saturate the dem convention with his own ads touting his leadership,

In my view the Dems are self-immolating, remember, 67% of the American people are FOR this war, and until the Democrats propose WHAT THEY WOULD DO, and it elicits an "oh, that may make me feel safer" from this segment, then we should permit them to scream and shout.

They embrace John O'Neill, and within days his message is neutered by events. They embrace a few of Kay's words as probative of their cause, and within days he becomes an asset to Bush. "You haven't caught Saddam" ends resoundingly and publicly with his extraction from the spider hole. Meanwhile the credibility of their main asset, the main stream media, goes in the tank with each revelation. This is a train wreck for the anti-war stance, and begs no interference at this juncture.

87 posted on 01/31/2004 3:50:37 AM PST by wayoverontheright
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To: Pitchfork
Well, I'm not going to argue with the "whatever the dems do is wrong regardless of the facts crowd" but look at the GNP growth and productivity gains of the 90s' look at your PC, the internet, under the hood of your car, at your cell phone etc . There were excesses in the 90's sure (Enron and Worldcom for example) but in many fundamental ways the US economy was tranformed for the information age. Microsoft isn't a fiction or some democrat generated myth. But believe what you want and I won't bug you with facts anymore.

What you say is absolutely correct, but it (in conjunction with your puzzlement about why your 401K went nips up, and your tendency to blame that on political causes) tends to reveal that you don't understand investment bubbles. They typically occur in conjunction with tranformative economic circumstances. The railroads transformed the United States too, and created huge value and productivity gains, but it was also associated with a bubble and a collapse in investments.

88 posted on 01/31/2004 4:35:02 AM PST by Stultis
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To: oceanview; Pitchfork
but what happened in the late 90s was pure fantasyland

Some of it was that, but some of it was real, material infrastructure, i.e. billions and billions of dollars worth of optical and other high bandwith telecom networks. Problem is they were massively overbuilt. Much of the capacity was never used at all, and much was obsolete before it ever started paying for itself.

But whether overvalued internet business plans, or overvalued telecom networks, it was a classic bubble. But you'll never convince some people of that (particularly the younger crowd that never saw one before).

89 posted on 01/31/2004 4:38:15 AM PST by Stultis
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To: Sonny M
Personally, I think Bush should start buying ad time from right before the Dem convention, .........

Personally, I think Bush should start acting like a conservative........

90 posted on 01/31/2004 4:44:22 AM PST by varon
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To: 11th_VA
I think Michael Reagan's thesis is just flat out wrong. Why give the 'Rats a chance to modulate, test and fine-tune their message against Bush this early? Why should Bush provide them an off-Broadway test run for the 'Rat campaign? Instead let them emerge into public consciousness during the general election season with an unrehearsed, not-ready-for-prime-time, "hey, kids, let's put on a show" campaign.

And let them become more and more shrill. All the better to provide the public with an unmistakable contrast when the shock and awe phase of the Bush campaign erupts this Spring/Summer. Gravitas versus unglued, leadership versus looneyness. I'm impatient too. We all are. But good things come to those that wait, and this is going to be very, very good. Mark my words.

91 posted on 01/31/2004 5:02:43 AM PST by Stultis
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To: gatorbait
A bump for the long gray line.
92 posted on 01/31/2004 5:07:05 AM PST by risk (Duty, Honor, Country.)
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To: nopardons
Clinton did NOTHING, to make the economy grow; he was the recipient of Reaganonomics. - Agreed!
93 posted on 01/31/2004 7:13:42 AM PST by Free_at_last_-2001 (is clinton in jail yet?)
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To: 11th_VA
Your "advice" to Bush that he should saturate the internet with pop-up ads, sounds about par with the suggestion that he should start a computer virus that infects all computers and says "vote for me".
94 posted on 01/31/2004 7:18:18 AM PST by ontos-on
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To: risk
" Would the NEA ever think to fund art like this?"

(Sneer) That's not art. Why, everyone who's anyone knows real art must involve either a jar of piss or smeared feces...


(/sarcasm)
95 posted on 01/31/2004 7:45:26 AM PST by reagan_fanatic (I'd rather be driving my '57 Chevy)
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To: varon
Personally, I think Bush should start acting like a conservative........

Personally, I think he's been pretty conservative on all but a few issues, I'll hope he goes farther right in his second term.

96 posted on 01/31/2004 9:17:03 AM PST by Sonny M ("oderint dum metuant")
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To: Huck
I stated facts - the Dow has trended upwards over the past 9 years, reflecting the "old economy" and my investments have increased in value steadily. What is the basis for your "cherished notions" comments?
97 posted on 01/31/2004 10:24:18 AM PST by KAUAIBOUND (Hawaii - a Socialist paradise)
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To: 11th_VA
He should show up on primary nights, thank the Republicans who voted for him. and discount what all these people are saying. Instead, what have we been getting? Six hours of "America sucks, the president is a stupid idiot, America sucks." Six solid hours of that filth.

I'm with you. I understand that the president is busy 24/7.

If I was in his cabinet I would advise him to MAKE time to rebut this cr-p.

98 posted on 01/31/2004 10:27:59 AM PST by LibKill (My sigil: Two crossed, dead, Frenchmen emblazoned on a mound of dead Frenchmen.)
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To: KAUAIBOUND
Sorry. I was unclear. I don't disagree with your facts. I was trying to explain why the 90s boom is discounted as just a dot come bubble. I'll give you a hint. It has to do with the political party in the White House at the time. Conservative dogma said that after Clinton raised taxes, the economy would falter. Instead it soared. So, the boom must be revised down.
99 posted on 01/31/2004 10:28:52 AM PST by Huck (Hold on to your wallet--the President's awake!)
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To: Stultis
do you think there are regional housing bubbles now?
100 posted on 01/31/2004 10:40:43 AM PST by petercooper (We did not have to prove Saddam had WMD, he had to prove he didn't.)
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