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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dale Baker who wrote (17160)	4/26/2006 4:42:20 AM
From: Dale Baker	Respond to of 542129

Apparently there is no plan to reach out beyond the base. Just keep pumping and cheerleading. These guys really don't get it. From Time magazine: "Friends and colleagues of Bolten told TIME about an informal, five-point "recovery plan" for Bush that is aimed at pushing him up slightly in opinion polls and reassuring Republican activists, whose disaffection could cost him dearly in November. The White House has no visions of expanding the G.O.P.'s position in the midterms; the mission is just to hold on to control of Congress by playing to the base. Here is the Bolten plan: 1 DEPLOY GUNS AND BADGES. This is an unabashed play to members of the conservative base who are worried about illegal immigration. Under the banner of homeland security, the White House plans to seek more funding for an extremely visible enforcement crackdown at the Mexican border, including a beefed-up force of agents patrolling on all-terrain vehicles (ATVs). "It'll be more guys with guns and badges," said a proponent of the plan. "Think of the visuals. The President can go down and meet with the new recruits. He can go down to the border and meet with a bunch of guys and go ride around on an ATV." Bush has long insisted he wants a guest-worker program paired with stricter border enforcement, but House Republicans have balked at temporary legalization for immigrants, so the President's ambition of using the issue to make the party more welcoming to Hispanics may have to wait. 2 MAKE WALL STREET HAPPY. In an effort to curry favor with dispirited Bush backers in the investment world, the Administration will focus on two tax measures already in the legislative pipeline--extensions of the rate cuts for stock dividends and capital gains. "We need all these financial TV shows to be talking about how great the economy is, and that only happens when their guests from Wall Street talk about it," said a presidential adviser. "This is very popular with investors, and a lot of Republicans are investors." 3 BRAG MORE. White House officials who track coverage of Bush in media markets around the country said he garnered his best publicity in months from a tour to promote enrollment in Medicare's new prescription-drug plan. So they are planning a more focused and consistent effort to talk about the program's successes after months of press reports on start-up difficulties. Bolten's plan also calls for more happy talk about the economy. With gas prices a heavy drain on Bush's popularity, his aides want to trumpet the lofty stock market and stable inflation and interest rates. They also plan to highlight any glimmer of success in Iraq, especially the formation of a new government, in an effort to balance the negative impression voters get from continued signs of an incubating civil war. 4 RECLAIM SECURITY CREDIBILITY. This is the riskiest, and potentially most consequential, element of the plan, keyed to the vow by Iran to continue its nuclear program despite the opposition of several major world powers. Presidential advisers believe that by putting pressure on Iran, Bush may be able to rehabilitate himself on national security, a core strength that has been compromised by a discouraging outlook in Iraq. "In the face of the Iranian menace, the Democrats will lose," said a Republican frequently consulted by the White House. However, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll this April 8-11, found that 54% of respondents did not trust Bush to "make the right decision about whether we should go to war with Iran." 5 COURT THE PRESS. Bolten is extremely guarded around reporters, but he knows them and, unlike some of his colleagues, is not scared of them. Administration officials said he believes the White House can work more astutely with journalists to make its case to the public, and he recognizes that the President has paid a price for the inclination of some on his staff to treat them dismissively or high-handedly. His first move, working with counselor Dan Bartlett, was to offer the press secretary job to Tony Snow of Fox News radio and television, a former newspaper editorial writer and onetime host of Fox News Sunday who served George H.W. Bush as speechwriting director. Snow, a father of three and a sax player, is the bona fide outsider that Republican allies have long prescribed for Bushworld and would bring irreverence to a place that hasn't seen a lot of fun lately. "White Houses are weird places," he told a 2004 panel on White House speechwriting. Snow had his colon removed after he was found to have cancer last year, but his doctors have approved the possibility of his taking the grueling post. Veterans of this and other Republican White Houses said that although they believe Bolten's first corrections have helped, they have not gone deep enough, mainly because most key decision makers--including Bolten, Rove and their staffs--continue to be people who have been in the Bush bubble for six years or more. "Where's the innovation? Where's the perspective?" said a friend of Bush's, who described the staff as so insular that it is hobbled by what he calls the "white-men-can't-jump syndrome"--the inability to soar. So now Bolten must prove to his many constituencies, internal and external, that although he's a veteran of the Bush team, he can still get it off the ground."

To: Dale Baker who wrote (17160)	4/26/2006 6:55:13 AM
From: Mary Cluney	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542129

The only flaw in the Orderliness Hypothesis is that it doesn't work if people are present....... In resisting President Bush's infinitely variable approach to the ever-shifting situation in Iraq Yeah sure, we are going to trust the future of civilization on Bush's deeply thought out "infinitely variable approach to the ever shifting situation ...." in human events. Snow is an idiot.

To: Dale Baker who wrote (17160)	4/26/2006 12:22:05 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542129

I think giving Tony Snow the job as press secretary has the risk of backfiring when Snow is given the thankless task of stonewalling the indefensible. Nobody has ever handled that well, but the weakness is that you're prostituting yourself to do it, and the chink in the armor is pride. We'll see. He's already plenty rah-rah, go Bush, so that's nice for him.

To: Dale Baker who wrote (17160)	4/26/2006 5:23:50 PM
From: one_less	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542129

I don't like terms like 'the cut and run crowd'. Terms like that have a tendency to divide and alienate, rather than unify people behind common cause. I want more clarity regarding the goals in Iraq and the War on Terrorism. I realize that 'War' by its very nature does not come with given outcomes that can be prescriptively ordered. There are contenting sides, sometimes multiple sides that are advancing and negotiating the process. However, we should have clear cut objectives and contingencies to mark progress reformulate goals and/or the need to restructure and redeploy our efforts. Our admin (or it's PR guy) should be able to carry that message of clarity and build some confidence with the American people that we are still the good guys in all of this. They have failed in the delivery of that kind of message up to now.