Posted on 10/10/2005 12:46:55 PM PDT by Crackingham
Why, all of a sudden, are things going so wrong for the White House? Conservatives up in arms about Harriet Miers and about the president's plans for the Gulf Coast; an anti-war mother camped outside the Crawford ranch dominating the news for a month; the president Bush's approval ratings lower than they've ever been: This is the price of surrendering control of the agenda.
The white flag went up — and Bush's troubles began — unnoticed, months ago.
Shortly after his re-election, the president announced he was prepared to spend political capital winning approval for top priorities like Social Security reform and making the 2003 tax cuts permanent.
For months, he looked as good as his word. In a burst of public activity rarely seen in a chief executive except in election years, he hit the campaign trail, telling the American people that Social Security was broken and had to be fixed. Ignoring the problem, he argued, was not an option.
Despite conventional wisdom in our what-have-you-won-for-me-lately national capital, this campaign scored a complete success. From utter complacency at the new year, before long the public was telling pollsters that, yes, indeed, Social Security was a hospital case and the doctor had better be called in quickly.
But, having won the debate on the need for reform, what did the administration do next? Nothing. To date, not one bill or detailed proposal has gone from the White House to Congress.
It is not hard to imagine superficially shrewd reasons for this silence. Some polls showed that reform wasn't selling well among key GOP groups, in particular red-state men over 50.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Because they've got no one to run against, and for the first time are being measured on their own merits, not how they compare to the competition.
The president has three more years in office. He had better get himself organized. He has to do something about deficits and the border issue. Those aren't going to go away. What's more is that GOP members of Congress have to bucked for mid-term elections. The RNC has to get the vote out, otherwise 2006 could be a very unhappy year for Republicans.
Have things gone wrong? Or does it just appear that way?
Me thinks the MSM doth heap much upon the President to embellish the negative lately.
I hope so. Hopefully we'll see big gains in the House and Senate for the Democrats.
Also because...
Shortly after his re-election, the president announced he was prepared to spend political capital winning approval for top priorities like Social Security reform and making the 2003 tax cuts permanent.
And then it was all out war with Dems and the MSM with their scandal a day offense.
They do a great job too except when it comes time to vote, then all that CRAPital the dems and MSM have spent seems to have all gone to naught!~}
Bush needs to stop being Governor of the US and start being President of the US when it comes to domestic issues. He leads on the foreign front and is a no show domestically. All his power he abdicates to the Democrats.
2006 is an election for a number of members of Congress. Each one and their respective MSM supporter must work overtime to negate anything the WH has, is or will do before '06 election.
"And then it was all out war with Dems and the MSM with their scandal a day offense."
Good one. :)
This WH does have an information problem in that they do not manage the flow of information well.
That said, this WH is very good at turning things around. And no one does more for Republicans than the rants of Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean. No matter how bad things are for Republicans, it's NP and HD that pull it together for us. Seriously.
But we can't count on it and expect to win.
It's good to be concerned about 2006 but where we need candor is in which direction the party is to go.
Because the oligarchs have decided that Hillary is going to be the next President and have told their boy "W" - "MAKE IT SO!"
Triangulation has its limits. Sometimes, being a blunt rightist is the best way to go. I get the feeling W is quite uncomfortable being a blunt rightist. He wa'n't raised up that way ...
As long as they are taking out 100 people a week in terrorist bombings, wrecking havioc, the constitution has little meaning, especially when so many are now concerned with domestic problems and issues. That's just the way it is.
They've definitely been on him hard. But that's par for the course. I don't think 2nd terms usually turn out well.
Because the Leftist oligarchy (e.g. the Boomer generation of the elites) only just barely tolerated W during his first term (in reality he was elected by non elites in the first place - e.g. by Bush Country) and were aghast when in spite of the dirtiest of tricks, they did not succeed in engineering his defeat in 2004. Now, they are overtly in opposition to him.
That's it in a nutshell. How much ink and energy has been spent on the Plame Affair? On the response to Katrina? On rehashing Abu Ghraib? On the mea culpae over every suicide bombing in Iraq and the 'possible civil war' there that has been eagerly awaited by the MSM for almost two years now? On Delay, even before the phony indictments came down? On championing the Senate Dems for their stand over judges, when what they were doing was blatantly unconstitutional and unprecedented? On the Dem shenanigans over Bolton, and fighting over Condi Rice's confirmation, which was also unprecedented? And calling for apologies and resignations with every perceived incident?
But I think all this obstructionism and delaying will avail the Dems naught in the midterms.
Frankly, I thought from the get-go that it was a serious mistake to start the agenda with Social Security. Sure, it's a serious problem. But there are several much more serious items of business.
1) Making the tax cuts permanent.
2) The new round of tax cuts, including death taxes and AMT taxes.
3) The judiciary.
Bush let all these things drift while he focused on Social Security. Then he gave up on Social Security. Gave on up making the tax cuts permanent. Gave up on including Alaska oil in the energy bill. Gave up on new tax cuts. Gave up on breaking the filibuster on judges. And now he has virtually given up on appointing strong judges to SCOTUS.
After this Miers fiasco, his credibility will be very low. All his enemies will be ready to obstruct and filibuster, because he has shown he doesn't want to stand up to them.
Well it could be way damn worse, we could be forced to listen to a drunken Terezzaaa day and night as she could afford the air time.
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