Casualties of the Campaign

Primetime Politics ^ | April 16, 2008 | Victor Davis Hanson

[moderatewolverine]

It is only four months into 2008, but the presidential campaign — already too long and nasty — is still a long way from over. And the casualties are mounting.

First, George W. Bush’s popularity remains dismal — even though some of the complaints about his first term have gone by the wayside. The French and German governments are now staunchly pro-American. Violence in Iraq is still way down from a year ago. America has been free from a terrorist attack since 9/11.

No matter. Nothing has seemed to help the president. His approval rating stays at, or sinks below, 30 percent.

Why? The current gloomy economic news and the continuing human and financial costs of Afghanistan and Iraq explain a lot. But another reason is this present election cycle. For the first time in nearly six decades, no incumbent president or vice president is daily hammering back in defense of the recent four years.

[Tolik]

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[BufordP]

...I’m convinced he is just an eyelash better than Jimmy Carter...

I think you're exaggerating. I think there's a bucket's difference.

[oldbrowser]

Bush has gotten a bad rap and he allows it to happen because he doesn’t try to correct the record, preferring instead to leave it to future historians.

"W" will go down in history as a selfless patriot. The Abraham Lincoln of our time.

[CPT Clay]

Bushes approval ratings are low because he disappointed consevatives with his push for “comprehnsive” immigration reform. He fought us tooth and nail. Why didn’t he fight that hard for personal savings accounts or drilling in ANWR?

[CPT Clay]

Argh...Gobal Warming BS

[CPT Clay]

Global

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Keep in mind that Bush is getting information from a variety of sources, not all of them reliable. When he called the Minutemen vigilantes it was because that is what was told to him by the head of the Border Patrol. I suspect that the bp union may be behind much of that.

There is much complexity involved in doing something as simple as “Just enforce the existing law.” and “Punish the employers.” As I said above, and you seem to ignore, there are many in this country (the left, the Democrat Party, the media, local looneys in Sanctuary Cities, etc.) who want and encourage illegals as new voters for the Democrats. All of them make solving the problem much harder. Yet, Bush is moving ahead with all the necessary steps of building the fence, punishing the employers, and all the other things required to solve the problem.

He just doesn’t tout his efforts and the media ignore them.

[llandres]

You’re very insightful on McCain’s current strategy to let the Dems go at each other, and yes, he has an extremely tough line to walk in the general. I really hope he has brilliant strategists and staff with excellent timing and who know just when to go for the jugular. You’re so right about the challenges (mine-fields) he’ll face in this unusual race, and in our uber-politically correct culture. Who woulda’ thunk it.

[Hawthorn]

>> “W” will go down in history as a selfless patriot. <<

He certainly SHOULD be remembered that way. But it may take a long time for today’s BDS to fade away.

>> The Abraham Lincoln of our time. <<

That’s a little strong for my tastes. I’d prefer to say, “The Harry Truman of our time.”

[I’m old enough to remember well how strongly my father and his peers detested Truman in 1948. I grew up thinking HST was the devil incarnate. Yet fifty years later, in 1998, my father was “just wild about Harry!”]