Jesse Taylor of Pandagon notes that Bush has no second-term policy:
Pandagon: The Excellence Of Not Executing: John Kerry's site has an issues section. Like any site focused on an upcoming election, it talks about what he will do and how he plans to do it. I do not know if all these things can happen, but I know he has a plan for the next four years. George W. Bush's site has an issues section. It has no actual proposals for any second-term policies. Not one. The closest any section comes is national security, which reprints a brief summary of a 2002 speech that declares we will do good stuff, at least 2/3 of which Bush has fundamentally failed at....
[T]he incompetent campaign, the total lack of coherence between his statements from month to month, the refusal to be in New York for any length of time other than to give his speech... a man who doesn't plan to govern has no need to make plans about governing! Or, you know, maybe he just thinks bashing John Kerry for eight months constitutes an agenda. That's always heartening.
A number of people who would normally be Bush supporters are nonplussed at the fact that the White House doesn't have any policies:
washingtonpost.com: Bush Team Lacks Clear Economic Plan, Critics Say | Jonathan Weisman: ..."You either define yourself on these big issues or the Democrats will define you," said Richard K. Armey, the former House Republican leader...
Diane Swonk, the chief economist at Bank One Corp. "Up until even just a month ago, it was okay to be behind the scenes, but we have a different economic atmosphere now."
...the "ownership agenda".... But... voters... received few details.... [S]aid Richard Berner, chief U.S. economist at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, "he has been talking about the ownership agenda for a while. I can't see this at all as new."...
But... economists complained, the public comments of administration officials -- especially Snow -- tend toward boosterism, no matter the audience or the economic news at the moment....
Allen Sinai, president and chief economist of Decision Economics Inc..... "Look, what I've not seen from this administration is a clear articulation of policy for the future."
In February, after the economy added a disappointing 83,000 jobs, Snow told an audience at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, a prominent private, nonpartisan organization headquartered in Washington, "The president's tax cuts have worked." In April, with jobs rising smartly but record trade and budget deficits weighing on bond traders' minds, he told the Bond Market Association in New York, "We're on very solid footing, our upward trend is strong, and there can be no doubt that President Bush's leadership on tax cuts has made a decisive difference." In May, when the unemployment rate of 20- to 24-year-olds had risen to 9.7 percent, from 9.2 percent the month before, he told graduates at Kenyon College in Ohio, "The job market is ripe for you right now."
On Thursday, Snow told employees of a ventilation company in Springfield, Mo., "The tax cuts . . . are a critical part of the reason why I am able to report that our national economy has found its footing." Meanwhile, in New York, the Conference Board, a business research firm, reported a second straight monthly decline in its index of leading economic indicators....
[R]epeating [the current message of economic rebirt] in the face of contrary news is not going to help, said Frank Luntz.... Sinai of Decision Economics. "Leveling with Americans on risk, on the facts of life, on really why things are done, and even admitting that mistakes have been made, I think Americans understand all that. And I don't think we're getting leveled with."...
"When you're on the campaign trail with all these politicos who know nothing about the economy and are saying, 'We've got to do something,' there's got to be pressure to come up with something at least rhetorically beyond 'Four More Years,' " said Bruce Bartlett, a conservative economist and commentator. "But as far as I can see, there's nothing."
Bartlett, Luntz, Sinai, Swonk, Armey--these are all people whose natural habitat is on the Republican side of the aisle. And they are not happy campers.
So what does the White House think is the solution? Here it is: Michael Gerson and Karl Rove--neither of whom knows squat about what good policy is--will write a speech:
FT.com: Mr Bush has retreated to his ranch in Crawford, Texas, to work on a speech intended to pivot from his record in office to the so-far closely held specifics of what he would do with another four years in the White House.... [T]he Bush campaign let it be known that it would lay out the substance of the president's second term economic plan in the run-up to next week's Republican convention in New York....Posted by DeLong at August 25, 2004 07:16 AM | TrackBackWhite House officials have sent policy proposals to the president and Karl Rove, his chief political adviser. These include plans for greater private sector involvement in retirement accounts and health insurance, sweeping changes to the tax code and liability reform. Mr Bush and his advisers have decided to make the speech "forward-looking", one official said, but remained uncertain about how specific the policy proposals will be. The level of detail will be decided this week by Mr Bush in consultation with Mr Rove and Michael Gerson, the president's speech-writer....
IT IS ALMOST TIME TO THANK THE DEMOCRATS FOR NOMINATING AN UNELECTABLE CHARLATON.
The carefully designed and highly vaunted Democrat Primary system has totally boomeranged by nominating an insufficiently vetted John Kerry who carries the fatal baggage of hatred directed directly at him of two thirds of all his Vietnam veteran colleagues and their friends and families.
By the time the GOP Convention and the 9/12 in DC Vietnam Veterans against Kerry demonstration are over, the Kerry campaign will be hopelessly under water. The amusing truth is that a Clinton-like candidate free of Kerry’s baggage – Edwards perhaps?- might easily have won this election.
Unfortunately for my Democrat friends, the upcoming Demo-debacle will reduce the Democrat presence in the House and Senate finally giving W the ability to seat his badly needed new judicial appointments.
This fatal error of the DNC will usher in an era of GOP political domination unmatched since the decades long domination of the FDR Democrats.
Read about a ludicrous attempt by the Dem big shots to overcome their error:
Kerry Takes Fight over Vietnam Ads to Bush's Ranch
By Adam Entous
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - Democrat John Kerry will dispatch two fellow Vietnam veterans to President Bush's secluded Texas ranch on Wednesday to press him to condemn television advertisements accusing Kerry of lying about his wartime service.
The move comes one day after it was disclosed that a top lawyer for Bush's re-election campaign has been providing legal advice to the group behind the ads, the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
Kerry is sending to Crawford former Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia, a frequent companion of Kerry's on the campaign trail and a fellow Vietnam War veteran who lost three limbs during the war.
Cleland and former Army Green Beret Jim Rassman, whose life was saved by Kerry during a Vietnam war firefight, will try to deliver a letter protesting the ads to Bush at his heavily guarded ranch, Kerry aides said.
Kerry's service has dominated the neck-and-neck race for the Nov. 2 election in recent days as both candidates try to portray themselves as the best man to lead the United States in its war against terrorism...
http://pep.typepad.com/public_enquiry_project/2004/08/it_is_almost_ti.html
Why is one left with the impression that Adrian Spindle's real first name is '#!/usr/bin/perl'?
Posted by: Alan Turing at August 25, 2004 07:52 AMAdrian said:
This fatal error of the DNC will usher in an era of GOP political domination unmatched since the decades long domination of the FDR Democrats.
Is Adrian's post meant to be satirical? Or have I been reading too much Fafblog?
Of course, RNC could secure their coming dominance by ditching Bush and nominate Giblet instead -- the only candidate so far to address the clear and present danger of insectoid alien invasion.
Posted by: Weco at August 25, 2004 07:55 AMOne could almost infer from Secretary Snow's comments that the Bush administration believes it's economic job is done. The tax cuts have been applied and the economy is "on solid footing".
So, what, mission accomplished? Nothing more but tweaking the edges for the next four years? Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain?
Posted by: Tad Sketchy at August 25, 2004 08:16 AMTo the contrary, Bush has at least two second term policies:
1) To make tax cuts permanent
2) To pack the Supreme Court with conservative judges.
These two prospects are well known by the Republican right and motivate them.
Posted by: Come on guys at August 25, 2004 08:24 AMGetting a bead on the Bush-Gerson connection, Karen Hughes comes close with this description from USA Today:
'But she also quarrels with the notion that Bush isn't capable of his own eloquence.
"The president's natural style is what I call eloquent simplicity."
So Gerson isn't really necessary afterall?
One wonders if Gerson edited that statement too, --making sure 'eloquent' was in there. And not 'simple' or 'simpleton'.
Sooner or later, the marketing meets the product, no? Despite heroic advertising efforts, few consumers are ready to stick with a product that doesn't, and hasn't worked for them. Does anyone other than Adrian and Patrick believe that a New Improved Bush will persuade dissatisfied customers?
Adrian,
We know about your weight problem, and it is admirable that you are attempting to get a handle on it. However, the current spate of manic like behavior you are demonstrating (here and at other blogs) could be a side effect of the medication. Please consult your physician or pharmacist as soon as possible. Good luck. Remember, drugs are not a substitute for will power and good eating habits.
Is it possible that Bush is smart enough to know that second terms have lately been disasters that the incumbent would have been well advised to avoid (eg Reagan, Clinton)? Maybe he really does not want it?
Imagine a Bush second term secured on the basis of Swift Boat Veterans type campaigning. It will be ugly for everyone, especially Bush.
Posted by: Bob H at August 25, 2004 08:44 AMFollowing onto Bob H's concerns, I am less afraid of what Bush's 2nd term priorities might be and more afraid that the BC04 campaign is employing the soft bigotry of low expectations in their campaign so far. Think about how widely praised they would be if, after months of evasion, they roll out a comprehensive and clearly defined 2nd-term plan at the convention next week. It almost won't matter how disastrous, radical, or implausible the plan will be. The horse race story will be "Bush boldly restores policy focus to 2004 campaign."
Bush has always been expert at pretending that the past never happened, and once the convention is over, he will pretend that he didn't spend 7 months running negative ads against Kerry and running away from his own record. It is incumbent upon Kerry to force the discussion onto his own plan and why it is better than Bush's plan.
Posted by: diddy at August 25, 2004 08:57 AMSS privatization? That's not new. If I'm a Kerry strategist, I already have ammunition against this in the can, ready to use.
Posted by: Chuck Nolan at August 25, 2004 09:14 AMNorman Podhoretz is a plagiarist, a swiftboat seditionist, attempting to subvert a democratic dialogue over the failure, the *abject* failure of Bush Administration policies, using "WW IV", beating the drums of alarm to drown out debate.
World War IV: How It Started, What It Means,
and Why We Have to Win
by Norman Podhoretz - Commentary, September 2004
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/A11802017_1.pdf
And Podhoretz' plagiarised source:
World War IV
by James Woolsey (former Director of CIA)
Speech 16 November 2002
http://www.melchinger.com/war/WW4.htm
Thanks to Heraclitus at "Don't Tread on Me" for inadvertently outing Podhoretz, and with him, the Rovian's and Adrianazi's, all banging the NeoCon Terrets Syndrome Tin Drum, praying the mainstream media doesn't pick up the treasonous Cheney - Plame affair and implode their Chief.
===============================================
Which is more significant:
Cheney - Libby outing a CIA agent in a fit of piff against a former ambassador who wouldn't toe the party line about "WMD and yellow cake"?
Bush - Cheney lying about (no) WMD and (no) link between Saddam and terrorism, resulting in the tragic deaths of 1000 American veterans and the maiming of 6000 more, and the slaughter of tens of 1000's of innocent Iraqi civilians in direct contravention of international rules of war, in illegally dragging the US into war with Iraq (and WW IV) without mandated vote of Congress?
All under the false and self-serving rubric that "Iraq is better off without Saddam".
Bush - Cheney gleefully leaving the murderous Khaddafi in place, showering him with promise of development monies after he paid the Locherbie blood money, began preaching transnationalism instead of pan-Islamism like a house servant?
Their inordinate egregious ties between Bush - Cheney and the fascist House of Saud, the Bush family and CIA ties to Osama bin Laden, Mossad and state-sponsored terrorism around the world?
-or-
Kerry's "superficial wounds" earning a purple heart, ten, twenty, thirty, *forty years ago*, and some sour, nutted old Dole whining about it to the glee of a dozen Nam numb-nut swiftlets?
==============================================
What about the *issues*! Is this great exercise of American democracy, to be limited to watching these life-long privileged preppy Skull'nBones Yaley frat boys throwing insults at each other?
What about the economy! What about the lack of health care for 30,000,000 Americans! What about the legions of poor spilling into the streets! What about the real estate bubble now breaking! What about the continued corruption of mutual funds and big banks? What about the trans-nationals, NAFTA, WTO and the destruction of global society under the bootheel of unchecked paganist worship of Mammon.
If this is the kind of October Surprise that the Republicans were referring to, then damn their sedition, and damn their traitorous BushCo lies!
Let me plagiarize a little, with apologies to Tom Paine's "The American Crisis":
"THESE are the times that try men's souls.
The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.
George W Bush, with a Homeland Defense army to enforce his tyranny, has declared that he has a right (not only to GROW FEDERAL GOVERNMENT and DEFICIT SPEND our estate) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER and to MAKE HIS EDICTS the LAWS OF THE LAND," and if being bound in that manner, is not Slavery, then is there not such a thing as Slavery upon earth. Even his expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God."
Posted by: Harry Possue at August 25, 2004 10:35 AMMy, my, my...trolls abound and asuredly visit here on occasion. But to be so blatantly off topic??? and for two of them to show up?
Y'know I could of swore that Brad posted on the Bush Administration's inability to articulate their economic goals for the next presidential term.
Thanks to Adrian and Harry for supplying an excellent example of same planet, different worlds...
devgirl
is not amused
A satyrical political cartoonist once said:
"The next great energy source will be slavery."
The cold war these swiftboat liars fought for an American way of life of the 1960's is long gone.
The Viet Nam veteran's America was:
1970 US population: 204,335,000
Farm population: 9,712,000
Farmers made up 4.6% of labor force
America just 15 years ago
1990 US population: 248,790,925
Farm population: 3,871,583
Farmers made up 1.6% of labor force
America is near entirely urban/suburban today.
Average Americans wouldn't know the difference between a hay fork and a manure fork, since the majority of Americans don't work manual labor.
America in 2000
2000 US population: 281,421,906
There are over 35,573,858 Americans living below the poverty level. That represents 20% of all children in the United States today are living in dire straits. 1 in 8 Americans are living in wage slavery, hand to mouth, in perpetual debt.
The majority of those poor are white and rural.
These reactionary Rovian Adrianazi John Bircher swiftboat liars are fighting to resurrect an old America that no longer exists, albeit through the subterfuge of excluding everyone who aren't blue-blood, employed, well-educated city folks.
They'll do it by subverting democratic process.
American Apartheid. Welcome to the 21st Century!
[Voice-over - "The BushCo Show will be right back after this commercial message. Don't go away!"]
[Laugh-track]
[Theme-music]
[Fade-to-commercial]
Hey guys, does anyone remember who Kerry's running mate is? What's he like, anyway?
http://pep.typepad.com/public_enquiry_project/2004/08/hey_guys_does_a.html
Reported this week's New Yorker:
In May, Bush gave what was supposed to be the first of five speeches outlining his plan for Iraq. We're still waiting on speeches 2, 3, 4, and 5.
Posted by: JR at August 25, 2004 12:41 PMAdrian, Adrian, Adrian...
It doesn't surprise me that you've forgotten John Edwards' name - I believe short-term memory loss is one of the side effects of Prozac...
Now, for all the rest of us who are living in the real world, it's time to deal with the issues. I'm working on a little tract - 101 Reasons Why I Can't Support George W. Bush. I'm looking for facts, supported by legitimate sources. Help me out with some ideas - I've got 21 so far. Example:
1. $81,628.56
The value, as of the market's close on August 24, 2004, of $100,000 invested in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Stock Index on January 20, 2001, assuming reinvestment of all dividends. Source: Financial Times/Interactive, via FactSet Research Systems.
Posted by: Uncle Jeffy at August 25, 2004 02:53 PMIncidentally, I believe that an inability to spell "charlatan" correctly is also a side effect of Prozac.
Posted by: Uncle Jeffy at August 25, 2004 02:55 PMThe "ownership society" theme could go both ways. From what I gather, it includes things like renewed talks about Social Security privatization. I'll use this is an example.
This would be good in the sense that it would force Kerry to pay a little more lip service what his plans are. (If I were him, I'd get people like Peter Orzsag of Brookings and Peter Diamond of MIT, who recently wrote a paper - which I am halfway through - about how SS doesn't need to destroyed to be saved.) It would also be good because Bush, unless he has had some major change of heart over the past few months, isn't going to raise taxes. And unless he raises taxes, slashes spending dramtically, or abandones many of his other policy proposals, there's no way he can pay for it unless he wants to balloon the deficit even more. So each time he harps that Kerry's numbers "don't add up," they can throw this right back in his face.
It would be bad in the sense that people don't seem to feel secure financially. And unless times are good, people won't want to make a drastic change like this. Additionally, it wouldn't force Kerry to pay more attention to this.
As for whether we will actually see any agenda, I always figured that it would come out at the convention and then be talked about on the trail as it rolled onward. That way, it would be fresh in the news cycle and would give the Bush-Cheney campaign free publicity.
Posted by: Brian at August 25, 2004 03:45 PMYou miss the point entirely. Mr. Bush's second-term agenda is exactly the same as his first-term agenda: TO BE A REPUBLICAN. That is all. It is necessary, and it is sufficient. Everything else is Brownian motion.
Posted by: Frank Wilhoit at August 25, 2004 06:34 PMFrank Wilhoit writes:
>
> You miss the point entirely. Mr. Bush's second-term
> agenda is exactly the same as his first-term agenda: TO
> BE A REPUBLICAN. That is all. It is necessary, and it is
> sufficient. Everything else is Brownian motion.
Huh?? If Bush had actually acted like a Republican, this would make sense. But what we have now is an alleged Republican who has made a habit of levying illegal tariffs on foreign goods (so long, free trade), created record deficits through irresponsible spending and outrageous tax shifts (so long, fiscal responsibility), working tirelessly to increase the profits of drug companies through new entitlement programs (so long, market thinking *and* limited government), rushing headlong into a military conflict without having a real exit strategy (so long, strong defense), AND engaging in an endlessly cloying policy of wink-and-a-nod racism on the campaign trail and elswhere.
George Bush is not a Republican. He is rather more like a Dixiecrat. His agenda is to be more open about being a Dixiecrat in a second term, but that's for after the election.
Posted by: Jonathan King at August 25, 2004 08:15 PM"Greater private sector involvement...in health insurance"? Does that mean they're going to propose getting rid of Medicare as well as Social Security? It only gets worse.
Posted by: Nancy Irving at August 25, 2004 10:50 PMP.S. Now we learn why they call it a "snow job."
Posted by: Nancy Irving at August 25, 2004 10:53 PM