Bush sees political capital that doesn’t seem to exist

March 1, 2006

After the election, talk of Bush’s “political capital” was all the rage. It was the “first buzzword of the second Bush administration,” and according to Karl Rove and the rest of the “strategery” team, this capital would be key to helping Bush execute a bold second-term strategy.

The premise of the idea was straightforward enough: After the 2004 election, Bush, as a political leader, had built up enough popularity and credibility that he could take on a controversial issue — which would almost certainly undermine that popularity — but maintain a strong political position. He would, in effect, “invest” the political capital.

But if a president no longer has a reservoir of popularity and/or support, the capital is gone. Bush, however, doesn’t see it that way, as he explained to ABC News yesterday.

VARGAS: I am going to ask about a poll, just the most recent poll that’s out today that does have your approval rating at an all-time low for your administration. You don’t care about that, but you have talked a lot about political capital, the importance of it, the value of it, your intention to use it. Do you think you have political capital right now?

BUSH: I’ve got ample capital and I’m using it to spread freedom and to protect the American people, plus we’ve got a strong agenda to keep this economy growing.

Maybe inside Bush’s bubble, there’s “ample” political capital, but everywhere else, the president’s support is practically gone. Even on national security issues, congressional Republicans are backing away from the White House. The fact that president believes otherwise is just bizarre.

And speaking of bizarre, Bush’s ABC interview was actually broken up into two parts. The first dealt with the substantive matters of state, but the second was a more personal discussion about Bush’s family, his dogs, and his relationships. There wasn’t much in the way of news, but there was one exchange that was particularly odd.

BUSH: You know an interesting story about the rug? Laura designed the rug.

VARGAS: She did?

BUSH: Yeah, she did. Presidents are able to pick their own rugs or design their own rugs.

VARGAS: Did you just change the rug, or did you change some of the furniture as well?

BUSH: Changed the rug, no, the rugs been here since I’ve been here. Or actually since she designed the rug and then it was woven.

VARGAS: So what happens when you’re finished?

BUSH: It goes in a warehouse.

VARGAS: It does?

BUSH: Yeah. (Laughs)

VARGAS: You’re not going to take it home and put it in a family room or something?

BUSH: I don’t get to. I think this is government property, Elizabeth. And as you know, you got to leave government property where it belongs. But the interesting thing about this rug, and why I like it in here is ’cause I told Laura one thing. I said, “Look, I can’t pick the colors and all that. But make it say ‘optimistic person.'”

I’m curious, how can a rug say “optimistic person”?

I’m pretty sure that what Bush means by saying he has “political capital” is that he is the President, and is going be the President for 2.5 more years.

He doesn’t care about getting 50.1% support for his policies, or even getting 30% support. We’re in a peroid of unprecedented Republican dominance, and he just wants to enact as many of the Republican Party’s longtime goals without the press getting upset. He doesn’t have some sort of illusion that his goals are actually popular with the country, but it’s hard to see why that would matter, now that the country has reelected him for some reason.

  • How can a rug say “optimistic person”?

    It can’t, of course, but a person who is trying to convince other people that he is optimistic can suggest that the rug he has on his floor is able somehow to communicate that quality.

    George Bush is the kind of person who thinks that if he has a picture of George Washington hanging over the Oval Office desk, that makes him a great leader, too.

  • I’m curious, how can a rug say “optimistic person”?-

    Easy. Pressure-pad trigger underneath the rug, linked to a looped cassette-player, with pre-recorded “optimistic person” (preferably recorded by Cheney) coming from speakers hidden behind the couch (would explain why Dubya thinks ‘God’ speaks to him…)

  • How can a rug say “optimistic person”?

    The president’s level of dialogue about the rug sounds like it is ready for adaption to a children’s book.

    The little rug that could talk.
    Rug rug on the whitehouse floor was asked the same question every day.
    “What kind of person am I ?”,asked President Dubya”.
    “Oh Dubya, you are the most optimistic person in all the land” exclaimed the little rug (who didn’t want to go to the terrible warehouse).

  • Bush has confused the rug with his staff who tell him continually that he is optimistic, as well as, anything else they think he wants to hear. Bush’s confusion between the rug and the staff are understandable; he walks all over both of them.

  • Cryptic Ned is close to the mark. The Royal Buffoon is, as usual, confused. He conflates the traditional respect for the office of the Presidency by the American people and the rest of the world — the relative power within our governmental structure, the bully pulpit, the economic and (formerly) political/constitutional might of the American experiment, and the compliance of the CCCP/MSM — with what has in the past been that “something extra” we call momentum, credibility, efficency and/or effectiveness… or what we call “political capital.”

    If we think of “capital” as the ability to get things done, then because of the useless Congress and CCCP… and increasingly, the reluctance of the courts… the Royal Buffoon DOES have the practical equivalent of “political capital.” Unfortunately, we are on a ruinous course in this country, one which will result — sooner or later — in calamity of catastrophic proportions for our economy, our constitutional democracy, our environment, and even the existence of the world (bird flu; Islamo-Christian wars; world-wide economic depression; melting polar ice caps; peak oil; and on and on…).

    Our only hope is that the aggregate wisdom of the American people — and if recent polls are any indicator, that “wisdom” is atrophied but may still be intact — will rise up to throw out the Lying.Fucking.Bastards in ’06 and ’08. I just hope that happens BEFORE it is too late to save us and the rest of humanity. That said, and seeing what happened in the 2000 and 2004 elections, I’m not making any bets that the “aggregate American wisdom” will be allowed to effect a sea-change of sufficient size to save us.

    A tsunami is coming: either we will collectively throw out the Lying.Fucking.Bastards — in spite of the mostly-spineless Deocrats and the CCCP (Compliant Complicit Corporate Press) — or else the American Taliban (the Christo-Fascists) will have their Armeggeddon and the end of the world. Time is running out.

  • Bush, as Cryptic Ned notes, doesn’t care whether he has “political capital” or not. That’s a Rove term used in Republican talking points. Bush was more honest about his own perspective when he said in 2002, “I’m the commander, see — I don’t need to explain — I do not need to explain why I say things. That’s the interesting thing about being President.”

    The fact is, the 2004 election didn’t give Bush “political capital” anyway. Months of fear-mongering and Swiftboating, combined with Election Day dirty tricks in Ohio and other states, and possibly, just possibly, some hacking here and there of key optical-scanning election machines, are what got Bush a second term –not “political capital.” He was below 50% approval just before the election, magically went above 50% the week of the election, then the next week sank below it again forevermore. It’s hard to have “political capital” when you keep “winning” elections you shouldn’t be “winning.”

  • And as you know, you got to leave government property where it belongs.

    The discussion about the rug was scripted so that W could slip in this little nugget. It’s a wink and a nod to Repug supporters that he and Laura won’t be running off with the rug or other items in the White House ala’ Bill and Hillary.

  • Glad somebody caught that Gridlock. However, if this is the kind of drivel that comes out of the mouth of the president, we need to start taking elections more seriously. Can you say, moron?

  • And as you know, you got to leave government property where it belongs.

    But it’s fair game to loot and destroy the rest of the world.

  • True Grdlock, of course, he doesn’t have to take any of that stuff. With the tax cuts he gave himself, he can just buy new shit when he leaves.

  • The recent CBS poll while showing that overall his approval is at 34%, his approval amongst Republican is down only slightly to 73%. The Republicans have bought and paid for very specific thing when they gave to the Bush campaign: some wanted regulatory relief; others wanted tax cuts; other still wanted corporate friendly Supreme Court;……. These people don’t really care all that much about the Country as a whole, they are concerned that what ever it is they have paid for is delivered. Should they come to believe that Bush can’t deliver on his obligations to them, they will cut and run. Bush can’t afford to have this happen. His political capital comment, in my opinion, is aimed at his political creditors. He is telling them that he can still deliver the goods.

  • He got the Congressional Republicans to collectively take a dive on the NSA matter. He’s going to get them to do the same thing with the Dubai ports mess. He might have lost the public, but with the Republicans in Congress he still has a boatload of political capital.

  • Being comfortable with deficit spending means never having to say you’ve run out of political capital.

  • BUSH: I’ve got ample capital and I’m using it to spread freedom and to protect the American people, plus we’ve got a strong agenda to keep this economy growing.

    This quote pretty much sums up that the pResident lives in an alternate universe. “Ample capital”??? “spread freedom”??? For pity’s sake Republicans take him to a psychologist – this man needs help.

  • I just think he’s been homophonically* confused all along: he lives in the “political capitol” and thinks it means something else.

    (*Did someone say “homo”? Stop ’em from adopting before it’s too late!)

  • The meme of the neo-cons from Day 1 of the Bush administration has been that ‘we make our own reality’. I think that Bush seriously believes that if he just keeps saying things, reality will shape itself around his words. This is the kind of magical thinking that always leads to disaster, both for individuals and nations.

    Plus he is a truly delusional mono-maniac which makes it even worse. Just eight more months to the mid-term elections. May they pass quickly.

  • I know that this will show what an utter nerd I am, but this bit of nonsense about the rug is not new.

    When Bubble Boy made a speech down in Kansas in January, he shared this bizarro anectode with the crowd down there.

    http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/01/20060123-4.html

    I remember this because I started writing a blog post about this speech and the rug thing jumped out at me. I think I ended up deleting the post because the whole speech was so mind-numbingly bogus.

  • You know, when you look at Bush’s history in business, he’s geat at pissing away capital.

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