George W. Bush Angers Conservatives

NewsMax | February 8, 2004 | NewsMax e-mail

[COURAGE]

George W. Bush Angers Conservatives

Howard Dean isn't the only presidential candidate suffering a self-inflicted meltdown. There's a certain Republican with the same problem, and we don't mean Wesley Clark the former Reaganite.

President Bush has so angered his conservative base by spending more than any Democrat in history and pandering to illegal aliens that Republican congressmen, stunned by constituents' complaints, met privately with Karl Rove to unload, the Washington Times revealed Friday.

"I would say 97 out of 100 of our members who asked questions laid into him pretty good about spending and the lack of discipline on the administration's part," said Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla.

The White House, however, does not seem to be taking the problem seriously. Presidential spokesman Trent Duffy said Bush wanted "to broaden the party."

Good luck with that sorry strategy. Those who try to be all things to all people end up standing for nothing and having nothing. Proof of this tactic's failure: The more money Bush squanders, the Democrats attack him.

Wall Street Journal columnist John Harwood notes that Bush is getting socked from the right and the left and has only himself to blame.

Harwood traces the recent plunge in Bush's popularity to four events:

The uproar caused by former Treasury secretary Paul O'Neill undermined Bush's biggest asset: his image as "a strong leader, with capable advisers, who talks straight."

The State of the Union speech deepened misgivings on Capitol Hill. Bush blamed the GOP-controlled Congress for his own massive spending and deficits, and angered Democrats when he "improbably suggested that he had been vindicated" on what he now calls "weapons-of-mass-destruction-related program activities."

After insisting his humongous expansion of Medicare would cost $400 billion over a decade, he jacked up the estimate to $540 billion. Democrats, of course, say the program should be even more gargantuan, and conservatives don't want it at all.

The latest insult: a record deficit of $521 billion this year in a $2.4 trillion budget that pleases no one. This from a man who said "we can proceed with tax relief without fear of budget deficits." Most damning of all is a statistic the Journal published recently. Bush increased domestic discretionary spending by a record 8.2 percent, compared to 2.5 percent for Bill Clinton, 2 percent for Jimmy Carter and 4.3 percent for Lyndon Johnson.

Harwood notes that "just as with the nose-diving candidacy of Howard Dean, the problem is largely self-inflicted."

[goldstategop]

I'm not worried about who'll be President. My life's not affected in the slightest by who's running the show in the White House.

[rmmcdaniell]

I have to say there has been a lack of coherent "strategery" from the Bush camp in 2004. appears to be listing to and fro, making no one happy.

With the way Bush is acting you would have thought that Daschle was still the Majority leader and the GOP lost control of the house after '02. Since the great Republican victory of '02 they have completely thrown themselves off the left side of the cliff.

[Consort]

"George W. Bush Angers Conservatives" fatigue.
Angry people don't think straight.

[My Favorite Headache]

See if I didn't think I knew what ran in the Bushes blood then I would agree with you. Bush looks tired. Probably wants to go back to the ranch and call it a day. But being a Bush he also thinks he can win anything. Rocka-fella's I tell ya...it is the same bloodline.

[COURAGE]

As our VP once said BIG TIME. But there is a lot of time, and looks like W is getting off the dime. (Hey, I rapped!)

[thesummerwind]

Rove is a big believer in the book The Art of War.

From a thread --- GWB: HBS MBA ---

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1070924/posts

"By reputation, the President was a very avid and skillful poker player when he was an MBA student. One of the secrets of a successful poker player is to encourage your opponent to bet a lot of chips on a losing hand. This is a pattern of behavior one sees repeatedly in George W. Bush’s political career. He is not one to loudly proclaim his strengths at the beginning of a campaign. Instead, he bides his time, does not respond forcefully, a least at first, to critiques from his enemies, no matter how loud and annoying they get. If anything, this apparent passivity only goads them into making their case more emphatically."

[CommandoFrank]

It was the Republican House that controlled Clinton's spending.

That statement is old and worn out. If it were still true, why the spending today? The Republicans own the WH, the House and the Senate. There is no one to blame but GW, the Congressmen, and the Senators. We're in charge, we are the blame...period.

[thesummerwind]

If Bush is losing her too we're screwed.

I hear you.

[thesummerwind]

Bush was sick at the time.

Where did you learn that? A cold?

He looked sick.

[Texasforever]

So the dump bush crowd is using letters to the editors of NEWSMAX now? Deperate.

[My Favorite Headache]

Agreed. Bush has an excellent poker face.But his last 2 interviews have been disasters. Diane Sawyer and Russert today were just not strong showings. Neither was the State of The Union address imo. I think Bush needs to become one with the people again. He is gonna have to do the stops on Oprah and some of the surprise visits in other spots to humanize himself again with a lot of the undecided voters.

Americans like that. They liked the image that W came off as a guy who keeps his word and did straight talk. However, it is the responsibility of being visible and addressing people he might rather not face. He has to go on MTV and face the young voters. They are expecting 20 million voters this year between 18-29 yrs old. That is MTV's demographics. I despise MTV and could give 2 craps about it. But their Choose or Lose Rock The Vote thing is so pro-left it just is a tool to register everyone as a Dem.

Bush better appeal to the younger kids this time round because that is how his Daddy lost so big. Clinton cleaned up on the young vote and went on MTV and gained 9% in the polls the next week.

[My Favorite Headache]

I wouldn't call it dump bush crowd. I would call it the "Bush better wake up crowd".

I don't like this number:

In a match up of Bush V Kerry

Kerry-53% of the vote.

[Texasforever]

In the primaries the challenger ALWAYS beats the incumbent. Bush will be ok. And yes there is a large (20%) dump Bush crowd on FR

[CommandoFrank]

I am not part of the 'dump Bush' crowd but sometimes the truth does hurt. And I'll bet when the rubber hits the road the 'dump Bush' crowd will vote Bush for homeland security.

I think Carl and the boys are relying on that fact and have possibly overstepped the bounds by dissing the base while trying to collect more votes.

[COURAGE]

A MEGA RUSH DITTO. But throughout history, governments, by there nature, get bigger and more powerful, until the people or nation can no longer support and they collapse, either by internal (i.e. a civil war, peaceful secessions, whimpering away, etc) or external pressure (i.e. invasion, wars, other nation ignoring you, etc). Even if the Libertarians ran this nation, eventually this would happen. The Demorats just pave the road faster than Republicans. The $20,000 question is, when will the USA reach this point? I say with in my lifetime (I think I have 30 more years, GOD willing) the federal government will collapse. Remember Jefferson thought that the Federal Government would last only 100 years. We had a good run.

[COURAGE]

I mean Bush SR or 1 or H.W.. nor jr. or W or 2.

[COURAGE]

I hope they found the bounds and quick. it looked so good when Dean was a head.

[CommandoFrank]

The Demorats just pave the road faster than Republicans.

That was true in the past. Not right now though.

It is a function of the minority Party to do everything they can to make it look bad for the Party in control. Too bad the Repub's don't understand that. Spend, spend, spend and get reelected is the name of the game. And you are right. It can't go on forever...

[CommandoFrank]

it looked so good when Dean was a head.

I thought he was more of an a$$... I gotta go to bed now...

[clee1]

I say with in my lifetime (I think I have 30 more years, GOD willing) the federal government will collapse. Remember Jefferson thought that the Federal Government would last only 100 years. We had a good run.

I agree. I think in the next 20 years, the USA will have split into 4-5 individual regional nations, with 2-3 choosing a ridgid "original constitution" type of government, with a NATO-like partnership.

I'm afraid this process is going to be very ugly and probably very bloody.