Posted on 03/27/2004 7:33:37 PM PST by Pokey78
WASHINGTON
On the surface, President Bush's re-election campaign seems to be doing those things necessary to bring about victory. The president and his surrogates have begun attacking the record and remarks of Senator John Kerry. Television advertisements are being broadcast. The organizing needed to identify and get his supporters to the polls is well under way. And fund-raising, already at a record level, continues apace.
And yet, the effort appears wanting in one key area: the president has not secured the support of that part of his conservative base still inspired by former President Ronald Reagan, which has been slipping away from him for more than a year. Early in his term many around the president, aware that his father had walked away from both the Reagan philosophy and its followers, liked to refer to the tenure of George W. Bush as "the third Reagan term."
It is difficult to do that today. True, some of the president's decisions have pleased the cultural conservatives who were a substantial part of the Reagan base. He has appointed conservative judges, signed legislation outlawing partial-birth abortions and announced his support for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. His tax cuts have met with general conservative approval.
But these have not been enough to overcome the rising and increasingly vocal discontent with the president for moving leftward in efforts to woo more moderate supporters. While many of his decisions can be rationalized on their own merits, taken together they have many conservatives thinking that he is more like his father than his father's old boss.
President Bush's proposal to legitimize the presence of roughly 10 million illegal aliens, as well as what appears to be his indifference toward tightening border security, makes many conservatives irate. Also on their list are runaway deficit spending, the No Child Left Behind education act (which they see as interfering with states' rights) and the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform act (which many believe violates the right to free speech). Many also are unhappy about the president's request to increase spending for the hated National Endowment for the Arts. And then there is the muttering on the right — as well as the left — about the Patriot Act, which many see as a threat to civil liberties.
The Bush administration may be moving leftward in the belief that Reagan conservatives have no place else to go. If so, it is a colossal mistake. Reagan conservatives do have someplace to go: it's called home. They can sit on their hands and not vote at all.
If the president is concerned, as he should be, about losing the Reagan right, he must take steps to reassure these voters. Sending Vice President Dick Cheney and other conservative surrogates out on the stump will help. Yet the president himself must also re-emphasize his conservative beliefs and accomplishments, and convince conservatives of the merits of proposals like his guest worker program and the need for the Patriot Act.
When the president's father took conservatives for granted, he lost. The son must prove that he has learned from his father's mistakes.
Lyn Nofziger was an aide to President Ronald Reagan.
Looks like the Slimes is engaged in some good-old fashioned divide-and-conquer strategy. Get the conservatives riled up at Bush so hopefully they'll stay home.
Damn straight. We've done it before and we'll do it again if necessary.
BTW: No one at the NYT or in the Kerry campaign has the slightest idea what that means.
Quite an understatement.
But it's O.K. for Bush to do this, because after all, he's a Republican.
The article was written by Lyn Nofziger, a key conservative advisor to Ronald Reagan when he was Governor and President. I'd take it at face value, for what its worth. Nofziger knows what he's talking about. I'm sure the article was brought to the President's attention by some astute politico working in his administration. And I'm sure the President will take Nofziger's advice seriously.
February 2, 1981
Former campaign press secretary Lyn Nofziger, now White House political liaison, is poised for further complaints from conservatives. "The first thing were going to do is listen to them," says Nofziger. "So much of the frustration in the past has been that they didn't have anyone who would listen to them. The second thing we're going to do is try as much as possible to remind ourselves how we got here and what we promised to do when when we got here."
I'm sorry, I should have clarified what I said. Let me put it this way -- I'm quite suspicious of the Times' running three articles giving advice to Bush today. The message I think the Times is trying to send, no matter how honorable the intentions of the writers are (and I'm sure that Nofziger, Campbell, and Dole's intentions are all honorable) is that Bush is in trouble from all sides of his party. Call me a cynic, but the Times obviously isn't interested in helping get Bush re-elected, that's for sure.
Check out today's lead editorial, "A Long, Long Muddle, which begins with "George Bush's vision of the nation's future will undoubtedly be one focus of the presidential campaign. We suggest the debate start with the question of whether Mr. Bush actually has one." I don't think it's a coincidence that these op-eds are running on the same day as that editorial.
Reagan, Nofziger and the rest, listened to the GOP's conservative base back then. Reagan united conservatives like never before and I was proud to campaign for Reagan.
Constructive criticism can be a useful tool.
The NYTimes is read mainly by liberals and those liberals have already made their mind up. The focus of these three articles was to the GOP's centrist, moderate and conservative factions.
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