From what they are saying and the way they are saying it, President Bush, his strategists and spinners are clearly thinking about you, 24/7, during this campaign season.
They are thinking you are idiots. Or, at best, just pretty stupid. They are thinking you want to be conned or deceived. Or shucked and jived. Or even lied to. They think you want to hear smooth talk instead of straight talk. Anything except the tough truths.
GLOBAL TOUGH TRUTHS: Team Bush thinks you'll swallow anything but the truth about our international policy crises-at-hand. Such as the disastrous failures of their Iraq policy. And a direct consequence of it, the Code Orange high alert we've lived under this year because Bush diverted our troops and resources from the effort to crush al-Qaida, which gave our No. 1 enemy time to regroup and threaten us anew. Perhaps with a nuclear device or dirty bomb.
Team Bush hopes you will pay no attention to these tough truths about Bush's Iraq policies, thinking it is Democratic negative campaign spin:
(1) "It's beyond pitiful, it's beyond embarrassing. It is now in the zone of dangerous."
(2) "The administration has been stubborn about troops (by insisting more troops aren't needed in Iraq or the larger war on terror). We do not need to paint a rosy scenario for the American people. We need to let the American people know this is just like World War II; we're in it for the duration."
(3) " ... exasperating for anybody who looks at this from any vantage point."
(4) "We made serious mistakes right after the initial successes by not having enough troops there on the ground, by allowing the looting, by not securing the borders."
But wait - all four of those tough truths were said in the past month by this nation's most honest straight-talking Republican conservatives: (1) Sen. Chuck Hagel, Neb.; (2) Sen. Lindsey Graham, S.C.; (3) Sen. Dick Lugar, Ind.; (4) Sen. John McCain, Ariz..
DOMESTIC TOUGH TRUTHS: Team Bush thinks you'll swallow anything but the truth about our domestic policy crises-in-waiting. Such as an overall jobs deficit that has made this president the only chief executive who failed to increase jobs in his first term since Herbert Hoover. And an overall budget deficit that has sent the national debt plunging again - wiping out the real surplus that was bequeathed to us by President Clinton.
They think you are too dumb to know that it was the no-longer-big-spending Democrats who wiped out the huge deficits of the Reagan-Bush voodoo economics, bequeathing a real budget surplus to a Republican president - who voodid it to us again, by rubber-stamping every thing sent him by the now-big-spending Republicans who controlled the Senate and House.
They pretend not to hear (and think you're too dumb to understand) the whispered wailings of genuine think tank conservatives who are disillusioned to discover that their erstwhile hero was not a steely fiscal conservative, after all, but a big-tax-cut/big-spending Republican. A round-heeled cowboy who just can't say no.
Team Bush thinks you are so worried about the here-and-now that you don't know or don't care that you are only making your children and grandchildren pay your debts and your overspending. They also think you aren't worried about the fact that your children and grandchildren will live in an increasingly polluted environment due to newly relaxed restrictions put forth by Bush's EPA, an agency whose acronym now seems to stand for Environmental Prevarication Agency.
Team Bush hopes you won't notice what is probably the most cynical domestic policy ever propounded by a chief executive: Bush's stem cell sellout. To pander to his fundamentalist conservative base, he crafted a bizarre compromise that makes no intellectual, ideological or theological sense.
First, it creates what can only be called grandfathered embryos: The few (inadequate, scientists say) embryonic stem cell lines that existed prior to his policy announcement can be used for research; none can be created after for much-needed research. His policy means that fertility clinics will destroy unused embryos by tossing them into the garbage - but Bush will not permit those garbage-destined embryos to be used for life-saving research.
Mainly, Team Bush hopes you've lost interest in fixing Social Security or healthcare. Bush officials hope you're conditioned to seeing politicians promise in campaigns to fix your imperiled Social Security system and broken health care system - but then never lift a finger to fix these crises. But if you are alert enough, you may indeed see them lift a finger - but only to salute your gullibility after they have achieved their real goal: four more years on your payroll. Martin Schram writes political analysis for Scripps Howard News Service.
They are thinking you are idiots. Or, at best, just pretty stupid. They are thinking you want to be conned or deceived. Or shucked and jived. Or even lied to. They think you want to hear smooth talk instead of straight talk. Anything except the tough truths.
GLOBAL TOUGH TRUTHS: Team Bush thinks you'll swallow anything but the truth about our international policy crises-at-hand. Such as the disastrous failures of their Iraq policy. And a direct consequence of it, the Code Orange high alert we've lived under this year because Bush diverted our troops and resources from the effort to crush al-Qaida, which gave our No. 1 enemy time to regroup and threaten us anew. Perhaps with a nuclear device or dirty bomb.
Team Bush hopes you will pay no attention to these tough truths about Bush's Iraq policies, thinking it is Democratic negative campaign spin:
(1) "It's beyond pitiful, it's beyond embarrassing. It is now in the zone of dangerous."
(2) "The administration has been stubborn about troops (by insisting more troops aren't needed in Iraq or the larger war on terror). We do not need to paint a rosy scenario for the American people. We need to let the American people know this is just like World War II; we're in it for the duration."
(3) " ... exasperating for anybody who looks at this from any vantage point."
(4) "We made serious mistakes right after the initial successes by not having enough troops there on the ground, by allowing the looting, by not securing the borders."
But wait - all four of those tough truths were said in the past month by this nation's most honest straight-talking Republican conservatives: (1) Sen. Chuck Hagel, Neb.; (2) Sen. Lindsey Graham, S.C.; (3) Sen. Dick Lugar, Ind.; (4) Sen. John McCain, Ariz..
DOMESTIC TOUGH TRUTHS: Team Bush thinks you'll swallow anything but the truth about our domestic policy crises-in-waiting. Such as an overall jobs deficit that has made this president the only chief executive who failed to increase jobs in his first term since Herbert Hoover. And an overall budget deficit that has sent the national debt plunging again - wiping out the real surplus that was bequeathed to us by President Clinton.
They think you are too dumb to know that it was the no-longer-big-spending Democrats who wiped out the huge deficits of the Reagan-Bush voodoo economics, bequeathing a real budget surplus to a Republican president - who voodid it to us again, by rubber-stamping every thing sent him by the now-big-spending Republicans who controlled the Senate and House.
They pretend not to hear (and think you're too dumb to understand) the whispered wailings of genuine think tank conservatives who are disillusioned to discover that their erstwhile hero was not a steely fiscal conservative, after all, but a big-tax-cut/big-spending Republican. A round-heeled cowboy who just can't say no.
Team Bush thinks you are so worried about the here-and-now that you don't know or don't care that you are only making your children and grandchildren pay your debts and your overspending. They also think you aren't worried about the fact that your children and grandchildren will live in an increasingly polluted environment due to newly relaxed restrictions put forth by Bush's EPA, an agency whose acronym now seems to stand for Environmental Prevarication Agency.
Team Bush hopes you won't notice what is probably the most cynical domestic policy ever propounded by a chief executive: Bush's stem cell sellout. To pander to his fundamentalist conservative base, he crafted a bizarre compromise that makes no intellectual, ideological or theological sense.
First, it creates what can only be called grandfathered embryos: The few (inadequate, scientists say) embryonic stem cell lines that existed prior to his policy announcement can be used for research; none can be created after for much-needed research. His policy means that fertility clinics will destroy unused embryos by tossing them into the garbage - but Bush will not permit those garbage-destined embryos to be used for life-saving research.
Mainly, Team Bush hopes you've lost interest in fixing Social Security or healthcare. Bush officials hope you're conditioned to seeing politicians promise in campaigns to fix your imperiled Social Security system and broken health care system - but then never lift a finger to fix these crises. But if you are alert enough, you may indeed see them lift a finger - but only to salute your gullibility after they have achieved their real goal: four more years on your payroll. Martin Schram writes political analysis for Scripps Howard News Service.
