Can Bush lighten up and smile a little bit?

SF Chronicle ^ | May 7, 2006 | Bill Whalen

[redgirlinabluestate]

If there's an unintended consequence of lousy poll numbers, as President Bush is fast discovering, it's that sagging fortunes beget plenty of unsolicited advice, in this instance, how to put President Humpty Dumpty back together. The Washington Post, a reliable Bush critic, suggests that the president rebound by taking on climate change and lobbying reform, and "fess up to detainee atrocities." Fred Barnes, a Bush devotee and executive editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, has suggested a White House shakeup of 1906 proportions: elevate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to vice president; shift Dick Cheney to the Pentagon after bidding adieu to Donald Rumsfeld; score bipartisan points by putting a Democrat -- Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman -- in charge of the State Department. I'd add an important item to any other Bush recovery agenda, and it has to do more with posture than policy or penance. My theory: While the president's troubles are substantial and not going away anytime soon (Iraq, gasoline prices), there's a separate problem. The president, simply put, needs to lighten up a little and show that he's having a good time, polls be damned. Less so than his predecessors, it would seem, Bush hasn't tapped his office for all it offers in ways intellectual, spiritual and, yes, even hedonistic. If he is, it's a well-kept secret. During the day, the president's speeches are defensive.The events seem same-song with familiar-looking backdrops and audiences. After dark, the White House is seldom open for business: Official dinners are few and far between, as are invites to movie nights in the White House theater, which seats about 40 and shows first-run films.The first couple's private evenings are exactly that: private,with Texas outsiders generally more welcome than Washington insiders. The funny thing is the Bush White House didn't start this way.

[redgirlinabluestate]

But to many a 9-to-5er stuck in rush hour traffic and otherwise trapped in a hum-drum middle-class existence, the presidency is perceived as the coolest job on the planet, this side of Steve Jobs' product-tester. So why come across to that admiring public as carrying out the greatest job on Earth with the same grim pursuit of a bureaucrat waiting to be vested?

I'm not so sure about the need to "lighten up." If anything, I think he could get a bit more serious about a few things. I think if he'd come out with a "secure the border first" proposition and veto a few spending bills things would improve dramatically. What do you all think?

[Mo1]

I think if he'd come out with a "secure the border first" proposition and veto a few spending bills things would improve dramatically. What do you all think?

I think I am getting sick of every dang thread being about the border ..

[Dog Gone]

I think every thread is an illegal immigration thread.

[Dog Gone]

Dang, you type faster than me.

[Mo1]

GMTA :0)

[Nick5]

The problem as I hear it out here on the street, in people I talk to day after day, can be summed up in this equation, which has worked its way like a tapeworm into the popular mind: Cheney equals big corporate/oil money equals massive profits for his friends equals high gas prices equals the real reason for going to war in Iraq. Try as one might to point out the logical leaps required to move from one link of this chain to the next, the tapeworm won't be dislodged from the afflicted brain. So maybe, just in terms of giving the President the support he needs to be able to stand up and LEAD, Cheney does have to go.

[KoRn]

I've also found this to be the case. They are like zombies lol

[Mo1]

So maybe, just in terms of giving the President the support he needs to be able to stand up and LEAD, Cheney does have to go.

Oh yea .. there's a bright idea .... /sarc >

The media would have a field day with the President

[Mordacious]

Less so than his predecessors, it would seem, Bush hasn't tapped his office for all it offers in ways intellectual, spiritual and, yes, even hedonistic.

Translation: Dude, find yourself a cigar and invite a plump thong-wearer with little sense and even less self-respect into the oval office for some executive dictation. That's what a good president would do.

[TheCrusader]

"I think if he'd come out with a "secure the border first" proposition and veto a few spending bills things would improve dramatically. What do you all think?"

I think that overnight he'd regain the support of his entire base, and probably garner some new supporters too. Most Americans are very unhappy with the border situation and the mountain of debt the President is piling up for future taxpayers, and I think they know the liberals won't do anything about it either. So Bush does have an opportunity to help himself and the Republican Party. Problem is, he's too self-willed and agenda-driven to do the will of the vast majority of the American people. He gets an idea, he lives or dies with it. I used to love his arrogant swagger and that condescending smirk because it aggrivated the liberals no end; but now I'm beginning to see why they detested it.

[Ditter]

This makes me mad! The media beats on President Bush every day all day long including throwing rotten fruit at him and then this guy complains he doesn't smile enough. What a jerk, he is part of the problem.

[Nick5]

Zombies is right, but zombies or not, that's a big part of Bush's constituency, and he has to figure out a way to lead them. Love FDR or hate FDR, he managed to provide leadership, in a difficult time, beyond his political base. Same for Reagan. Cheney is in the way because people just plain don't like Mr. Burns and that's something that nothing whatsoever is going to change. Bush has to wipe away all suspicion that he is in fact Smithers.

[Lakeshark]

The president, simply put, needs to lighten up a little and show that he's having a good time

This writer would be squeeling that W is having a good time while people died in Iraq, and that how dare he have fun.

Oops, is this an immigration thread?

[Flyer]

I changed my tag line to expedite the process.

[T.L.Sink]

I completely agree that Bush should take seriously and rethink his open borders policy that is bringing us social and economic disaster - not to mention the horrendous national security danger of some terrorists strolling into the U.S.

By the way, Fred Barnes who was mentioned in the post is a "big-government conservative" -- talk about oxymorons! Both he and his boss, Bill Kristol, are part of the open-borders lobby also. He's a Bush fan because Bush is not a true conservative.

[KJC1]

It drives the left nutzo that President Bush has a good sense of humor, even after taking potshot after potshot. I think this author is full of dung and trying to paint Bush out to be angry and uptight because they wish he wasn't so likable and humorous.

[redgirlinabluestate]

Less so than his predecessors, it would seem, Bush hasn't tapped his office for all it offers in ways intellectual, spiritual and, yes, even hedonistic. Translation: Dude, find yourself a cigar and invite a plump thong-wearer with little sense and even less self-respect into the oval office for some executive dictation. That's what a good president would do.

LOL! It DOES sound as if he was suggesting something almost that ridiculous. My point was that I think Bush needs just the opposite of what he was suggesting to get his MOJO back.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

RIGHT ON!!

Secure the border: Poll numbers will go up 10% immediately. Even most Democrats support a secure border.

But he better hurry. This cannot wait.

Then get Tony Snow out there a lot. Daily. Smiling. :)

[tobyhill]

"The problem as I hear it out here on the street"

Are you at a library now? Are you a member of the Today show reporting from Rockefeller Plaza? What street you talking about? I live in a water-cooler world, where 95.3% of the US lives, and the only talk I've been hearing is who got whacked on the Sopranos. Every now and then I hear about how gas prices suck but it's certainly not the talk of the day.

[kitkat]

***...Cheney does have to go.***

I guess you and I talk to different people.