The White House had a pretty good strategy in place. Raise ungodly sums of money in 2003 and early 2004. All the while, Bush and his political team would sit back and watch the Dem field of candidates tear each other apart. Eventually, one candidate would emerge after a series of brutal primaries, but at that point, he’d be damaged goods. Once that happened, the plan dictated, Bush could start spending some of his vast fortune and slowly start campaigning.
The key was trying to appear “above the fray.” The Dems, Bush hoped, would be seen as bickering children who fight among themselves to excess. The president, meanwhile, would govern and look great by comparison.
That plan has been completely scrapped. And for good reason; it was predicated on a series of predictions that proved utterly false. The Dems are running a great campaign, Bush’s popularity is plummeting, and the White House hasn’t any luck in shaping a record of accomplishments on which Bush can run.
Better yet, it’s only February and the Bush-Cheney ’04 team already has to hit the campaign trail and start spending some of that money we’ve heard so much about.
Time, for example, reported this week that circumstances have pushed Bush into campaign-mode.
Until the end of last week, his advisers insisted that their boss would engage his political adversaries “later rather than sooner.” That has changed — mainly because these advisers now worry that Bush’s opponents have been so effective in defining him that only the President can stand up for himself. Meanwhile, the Democratic primaries have produced candidates who are less bruised than the Bush team expected. The President has been chomping at the bit to get started. “He has been waiting for the go signal,” says a top adviser. Notes another: “He is a guy of action. He wants to be doing something. He doesn’t like to sit around.”
The Bush team is no longer worried that having him join the political fray this early in the season might raise the leading Democratic candidates to the level of the presidency, diluting the advantages of incumbency their boss enjoys. “They’re already there,” concedes an aide. So this week the Bush campaign will boost its ranks of surrogate campaigners and begin buying time for political ads that advisers say will accentuate his record and start out positive. On Monday, Bush makes his most overt political pitch yet of the 2004 campaign in a speech to Republican Governors. “It will be unmistakable,” says a top adviser. “We’re hitting the accelerator.”
Sure, but will it help?
The White House has been trumpeting a brand new campaign stump speech that Bush will be rolling out tonight to the Republican Governors Association. Ken Mehlman, Bush’s campaign manager, said the emphasis will be on taxes and terrorism. TV ads with a similar message will be on the air within a couple of weeks.
This, in a nutshell, is the White House “hitting the accelerator.”
Forgive me; I know I’m supposed to be in awe of the powerful Bush political team (Rove, Mehlman, and Co.), but it’s pretty underwhelming so far. Taxes and terrorism? That’s their fancy new campaign scheme? Meet the new message; it’s the same as the old message.
Jennifer Palmieri, John Edwards’ spokeswoman, summed things up nicely. “The Bush White House still doesn’t get it,” Palmieri said. “They don’t have a PR problem — they have a leadership problem. An ad campaign is not going to create more jobs, make healthcare more affordable or make our country more secure.”
The fun part is that the White House is so concerned about the political landscape that Bush aides find it necessary to shift into “campaign mode” several months before they wanted to.
I never would have predicted this two months ago, but Dems are campaigning from a position of confidence at this point while the White House is visibly nervous. Who would have guessed?