Just to follow-up on a post from earlier this week, Bob Novak had an interesting column a couple of days ago (brought to my attention by my friend Phil) about conservatives complaining about Bush’s campaign ads.
After a Memorial Day spent campaigning in his district, a Republican House member turned on the television Monday night to encounter a positive advertisement by George W. Bush’s re-election campaign. To the congressman’s dismay, it praised the president’s education bill. That was probably the second least favorite ad possible, in the opinion of this lawmaker.
The worst possible advertisement for conservative congressmen would have been one praising President Bush’s prescription drug bill. Their constituents are unhappy about both the school and prescription drug programs. So, to get Republican voters out of their living rooms and into the polling booth Election Day, they want the Bush campaign to stop talking about these unpopular proposals.
Well, that’s quite a conundrum, isn’t it? Three-quarters of Bush’s ads are attacks against Kerry, none of which happen to be fair or true. So BC04 is sprinkling in some positive issue ads highlighting Bush’s domestic agenda — and no one likes them either.
This is a campaign with a big communications problem. BC04 can’t run ads highlighting Bush’s “leadership” of the war, because the White House has been wrong every step of the way and the public no longer supports his handling of the crisis. The campaign can’t run ads emphasizing domestic achievements, because, as Novak’s GOP source noted, no one on either side approves of Bush’s policies. And making matters considerably worse, Bush can’t run ads encouraging us to forget about the last four years and focus on the future because he doesn’t really have a forward-thinking agenda outside of more tax cuts for the wealthy.
So what’s left? Eight months of ads accusing Kerry of being liberal?
To hear Novak tell it, there aren’t even many Bush messages that resonate with his GOP allies in Congress. When Bush traveled to the Hill for a GOP pep-rally, lawmakers enjoyed presidential rhetoric about tax cuts. Then the applause ended.
[Lawmakers’] response diminished to a few hands clapping when the president turned to his education program.
He next encountered dead silence by going on to the prescription drug program. ”I guess your eyes just glazed over,” an unamused Bush told his congressional audience. Defiantly, he said: ”Other presidents have promised help for prescription drugs, but I have actually done it.” That generated a little applause.
This doesn’t bode well for Bush. It’s not easy to tell skeptical seniors who can’t afford their medication that he deserves credit for a program that they hate. And if congressional Republicans are anxious for Bush to change the subject back to Iraq, the whole party is in trouble.