AS ECONOMY RISES, DEMS' PREZ HOPES FALL
By DEBORAH ORIN
November 26, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - The news that the economy's summer growth surge was a red-hot 8.2 percent, coupled with a Medicare prescription drug deal for seniors, had Republicans yesterday grinning big-time - from President Bush on down.
Best of all for Bush is that consumer confidence is now up from 81.7 to 91.7, its highest level in more than a year, a sign Americans are starting to feel cautiously optimistic and hopeful, which helps the guy in office.
But for Democrats running for president, it's another warning of the dangers of rooting for bad news in hopes of hurting Bush - they don't know how to cope when good news breaks out.
So heading into Christmas, Democratic front-runner Howard Dean sounded like the Grinch in a desperate bid to turn good news into bad.
"This growth is built on a foundation of reckless and irresponsible tax cuts and record-setting levels of debt . . . The Bush administration's fiscally irresponsible house of cards upon which this 'growth' is built cannot continue forever," Dean fumed.
Dean even felt the need to put the word "growth" inside snide quotation marks as if to suggest it's phony - so what if economists are hailing the growth news? - and did little to hide his hope that growth will slow.
One big problem for Democrats is that the surge validates Bush's tax cuts - many independent economists credit them with fueling the economy. It sure hurts the Democrats' call to reverse those tax cuts.
But there's a far deeper problem: the fact that Democrats have no positive message at all right now, no message of hope for a country built on optimism.
No one wins the White House preaching gloom and doom.
"If you get good economic news then even if things aren't going perfectly in Iraq, people still believe this president can keep them safer from terrorism than any of the Democrats," said GOP pollster Jim McLaughlin.
"Look at the key issues. On Iraq, the Democrats say pull out, but everyone knows that's no answer. On the economy, they want to raise taxes and wreck the economy. Finally, there's Medicare drug deal, so they want to torpedo it."
The Medicare deal underscores how far to the left the Democratic wannabes are now tilting. Eleven Senate Democrats backed the deal as did the American Association of Retired Persons, but all of the White House contenders bitterly oppose it.
The Medicare issue could help explain why in Florida, with its big senior population, Bush now leads all the Democratic 2004 hopefuls in polls by an amazing 20 points or more.
Alarmed, the centrist Democratic Leadership Council is warning the candidates "to close the . . . vision gap."
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