Posted on 01/20/2004 10:41:23 PM PST by JustPiper
The big loser in the Democratic presidential caucuses in Iowa wasn't Howard Dean. It wasn't Dick Gephardt. It wasn't even Al Sharpton who managed to attract about .5 percent of the vote.
The big loser was George W. Bush.
Only one thing can explain the bizarre positions taken by the White House before this week – an overconfidence that President Bush would be facing Howard Dean in his re-election bid this November. Karl Rove's polling must have made the president's political advisers so cocky about the race that they felt invulnerable.
What else could explain the president doing the following:
proposing a politically unpopular amnesty program for illegal aliens;
raising spending on domestic programs by bigger percentages than any of his predecessors, including Democrats;
proposing a vague manned mission to Mars without providing even the least compelling reasons, goals and objectives?
Bush has made many other mistakes in his term, but these whoppers are very recent gaffes made leading up to an election year.
Iowa should provide a wakeup call.
Instead of facing an angry Democrat out of touch with mainstream American values and temperament, Bush may well be facing a seasoned, smooth, mature political pro in John Kerry.
I wonder if he is up to that challenge.
How about a Kerry-Edwards ticket?
I believe if the election took place today, that ticket would have an excellent chance of beating Bush.
I say this as a dispassionate observer, a political analyst. I will not vote for either Bush or Kerry, or any other Democrat seeking the nomination.
But I think it's worth noting we are witnessing the self-destruction of a president – much like his own father self-destructed politically when he broke his "read my lips" pledge.
The latest polls show Bush in a tight race for re-election even before it's clear who his opponent might be.
As a result, Bush finds himself in a statistical dead heat with the opposition nine months before the election. When matched against an unknown Democratic presidential candidate, Bush squeaks out a 48 percent to 46 percent victory. On the question of who is most trusted to handle the nation's major problems, Bush is virtually even with Democrats, ahead 45 percent to 44 percent – down from an 18-point advantage Bush enjoyed nine months ago.
Americans think the Democrats would do a better job on domestic issues – the economy, prescription drugs for the elderly, health insurance, Medicare, the budget deficit, immigration, even taxes.
And why shouldn't they?
Here's the way this presidential race is shaping up: Bush will propose spending $18 billion fighting AIDS in other countries. The Democrat will up the ante to $25 billion.
Bush will propose spending 10 percent more on domestic giveaway programs. The Democrat will up the ante to 20 percent.
If it is conceded that more spending is good, a Republican will lose every single time.
And that's just what Bush has conceded with his phony, so-called "compassionate conservatism," that is really no more than old-fashioned tax-and-spend liberalism.
Bush gained no advantage with the public for his prescription-drug plan. He gained no ground with his bid to legalize millions of illegal aliens. He gained nothing from his attempt at inspiring Americans to join a new space program with a goal of a manned Mars landing. And his domestic spending increases, under attack by his own Republican base, have not served to win new independent or Democrat voters.
In fact, a CBS News poll showed similar drops for Bush support – notably over his plans on immigration.
If Bush were deliberately throwing this election, he couldn't do a more masterful job of losing votes, breaking bonds with his constituency and losing touch with his base.
If ever there was a time for a third party to emerge with some alternative ideas, 2004 is it.
"According to a RoperASW poll from last year, 83 percent of Americans support mandatory detention and forfeiture of property for illegal immigrants, followed by deportation."
Yes, I'm one of the 83%
zook, quit pretending these polls don't exist.
12 million people picking lettuce for a living? Wow! That's one helluva lotta lettuce growing in America.
That still leaves 6+ million picking lettuce, Dane.
Twenty years ago a high school drop out could get a job in construction, trucking, or manufacturing, and still do pretty well for himself. Well enough to own a car and afford some type of housing, by the age of twenty.
One by one these jobs have been outsourced, or filled by a wage suppressing immigrant, lowering the expectation and living standard of many Americans. Such is not suppose to be the case. In raising the boat of third world nations we have sunk the boats of many average Americans. Meanwhile those that stick it out through college are finding their jobs outsourced and their options limited.
You are merely parroting the propaganda of the enemy like a good little public school student. There are not that many white collar jobs and in fact all jobs have been artificially manipulated out of the country, or by immigrants in country all due to deadly socialist government policies and freedom robbing Free Trade.
52 posted on 01/14/2004 5:15:38 AM PST by MissAmericanPie
Scan the whole page for good reading!
Conservative Debate Handbook
You guys are unreal. I'll ask this question I've asked before and not yet received an answer for:
Whatever happened to keeping President Bush's feet to the fire?
That is what the rabid Bush supporters promised they would do if he won the election. I have seen no feet being held to any fire, just a swooning over some vague notion that throwing the Treasury doors open is part of some masterful strategery on President Bush's part.
BUMP to your comments. The hypocrisy is staggering.
A New York Times poll released Sunday echoed those results. Two-thirds of those polled said they disliked Mr. Bush's plan, and a plurality of those asked said immigration should be decreased, not increased.
A Gallup/USA Today poll released Jan. 13 showed that 55 percent disapproved of legalizing illegal immigrants, with 42 percent in favor. Among low-income respondents, an even greater majority opposed the plan.
Gallup also found that 74 percent of respondents, in general, were opposed to aiding undocumented workers, up from 67 percent who felt that way in August 2001.
Remember who is losing jobs, OUR poor and OUR middle class citizens. I don't want them on welfare programs at the rate that we have Illegals on welfare programs too!
I made sure my picture was "family friendly", in the spirit of this forum! LOL :)
Yep, no American is going to pick lettuce for the amount of cabbage they pay an hour.
Yep. And tho' I wasn't yet able to vote in that election, I didn't see much that was "far right" about the GOP platform, as indicated by #95.
Yep. As long as there are those voters who will stand there in the polling booth stewing in their own juices as they write in Tancredo or some other Candidate X, then Kerry or Dean will win. Wresting back control of the House, the Senate, and the White House, wiping away all those gains Conservatives made from 1994 to 2000.
I don't give a rip what Dean says to who or where. He's the radical left. If you take suggestions from a madman, I suggest you start shopping around for a second opinion. Dean isn't worthy of even a moderate Conservative vote.
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