Time.com: His Search For A New Groove (re President's second term)

Time Magazine ^ | Dec. 19, 2005 | Karen Tumulty, Mike Allen

[NutCrackerBoy]

TIME.com: His Search For A New Groove -- Dec. 19, 2005 -- The President has had a dreadful year, and his approval ratings are anemic. What Bush is doing to try to reverse his second-term slump.

No one has written a playbook for the President who is trying to stop a second-term slump before it becomes a long slide to oblivion. The most successful ones in modern times have gone about it in different ways, depending on the forces that were arrayed against them. Dwight Eisenhower, confronting a hostile Congress, made his mark with his veto pen. Ronald Reagan rid his White House of the aides whose incompetence and duplicity had produced Iran-contra, and engaged the Soviet foe he had once called an "evil empire." After Bill Clinton got past impeachment, he did what he could by Executive Order and picked his shots with Republicans on Capitol Hill--for instance, demanding more education spending in must-pass bills at the end of the year--boosting his popularity at their expense.

But recalibration and retrenchment do not come naturally to this President. Bush recently rejected a draft of an economic speech because it didn't mention his now dead proposal to restructure Social Security. He is still steamed because his nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers for the Supreme Count imploded; he vented about it to African-American leaders who met with him last week to discuss racial issues and Katrina disaster relief--prompting one of them to gently remind him that it was not African Americans but conservative Republicans who were her undoing. His reading of late has tended toward military history, which offers the comfort that other wartime Presidents, notably Harry Truman, endured scathing criticism by their contemporaries only to be redeemed by history.

[Just A Nobody]

What a load of crap ..... even for time.

[NutCrackerBoy]

However improbable the odds at this point or modest his short-term goals, aides say, Bush still subscribes to Rove's long-held dream that his will be the transformational presidency that lays the groundwork for a Republican majority that can endure. -Time Magazine

I'm sure Time is excellent at evaluating and predicting Republican presidencies (/sarcasm).

[peyton randolph]

Search for a new groove? I heard that Stella stole it.

[Just A Nobody]

LOL!

[Cicero]

It looks like another coordinated propaganda attack by the lefty newsmagazines. The latest angle cooked up in the DNC coat closet is that Bush is isolated from America and getting desperate.

[upchuck]

You forgot the BARFARAMA alert!

[NutCrackerBoy]

"Offense," says a top congressional aide. "We want him to play offense."

Nowhere is that more important than in confronting the nation's growing doubts about the Iraq war. Republicans are worried that Bush's message has been long on showmanship and short on facts.

The White House is no longer in the triumphalist stage," says council president Haass, a former Administration official who has criticized the Iraq invasion as a "war of choice." -Time Magazine

Hold it. This long article makes that pessimistic statement about "Republicans" without backing it up. And it seems to give credence to the ridiculous idea that the recent confident speeches are "just blowing smoke." Among Republicans, wouldn't you know it? They give pride of place to one who is anti-war.

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

Shelf the stab-in-the back shamnesty crap and secure the borders and Bush would be at 80%.

[BlueAngel]

Why would Pres. Bush mention Miers to African American leaders? Either they were lying to Time reporters or the Time reporters are lying. I bet its the TIME reporters who are lying.

[digger48]

My BS-o-meter went to Def-con 4 on that one too

[AZLiberty]

The President has had a dreadful year, and his approval ratings are anemic.

Wrong. The President has had an amazing five years, liberating two nations, bringing Libya back into civilization, rebalancing the Supreme Court, winning reelection, and maintaining majorities in both houses of Congress, and—thanks to the lying, scurrilous, and treasonous mainstream media—his approval ratings are anemic.

[BerniesFriend]

He is still steamed because his nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers for the Supreme Count imploded; he vented about it to African-American leaders who met with him last week to discuss racial issues and Katrina disaster relief--prompting one of them to gently remind him that it was not African Americans but conservative Republicans who were her undoing.

This is such a load of baloney..if this were true..don't you think the "African-American leaders" would have gone to the msm and told them the story of President Bush acting loopy???? More msm hating the President..

[NutCrackerBoy]

Even if true that the President vented about Harriet Miers, what the heck is the point? Who cares? The answer is that this type of article uses anecdotes to characterize what's going on beneath the surface, but Time is clueless and so spins out idiocy.