John Ellis, George W. Bush’s first cousin, said after the 2000 election that he never understood why Al Gore didn’t say, “What is it, Gov. Bush, that you don’t like about peace and prosperity?”
I think about that from time to time, especially in the context of the current presidential election. Somehow, Bush’s name and record have been swept aside, replaced with, well, whatever it is that passes for the current state of our political discourse. Apparently, it has something to do with Britney Spears and bringing gas to the pump in 2017.
But I’m inclined to turn to McCain supporters and ask, “What is it that you like about wars and recessions?”
With that in mind, I think Barack Obama was right to add a new line to his stump speech this morning.
“So the first thing I want to do, Florida, is just ask you a very simple question,” Obama said at a town hall meeting in St. Petersburg. “Do you think that you are better off now than you were four years ago or eight years ago? And if you don’t think you’re better off, do you think you can afford another four years of the same failed economic policies that we’ve had under George W. Bush?”
So far, the media seems far more interested in the fact that a couple of protestors interrupted Obama’s remarks this morning, but it seems this line — which I haven’t heard Obama use before — is the more significant development.
The Republican goal is to make the election a referendum on Obama. The Democratic goal, obviously, should be to push the campaign in the opposite direction.
For all the talk about this being a “change” election, there’s surprisingly little talk about what it is, exactly, we need to change from. George W. Bush has been an embarrassment to himself and his office. John McCain wants to keep doing exactly what Bush has been doing. The campaign has veered off into bizarre and incoherent directions, but fundamentally, when push comes to shove, we return to “change vs. more of the same.”
The reason Obama has generally been considered the favorite this year is the painfully obvious fact that the vast majority of Americans believe the nation is on the badly off track. So maybe now would be a good time to bring this back to a debate about “Bush’s third term”?
Shouldn’t “Are you better off now…” be the staple of the Dems’ message?
Shouldn’t this McCain quote be the most common refrain in the Dems’ rhetorical quiver: “[O]n the transcendent issues, the most important issues of our day, I’ve been totally in agreement and support of President Bush…. I will also submit that my support for President Bush has been active and very impassioned on issues that are important to the American people.”
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems in recent weeks that the drive to connect McCain to Bush has been less of a priority. Maybe Obama’s remarks in Florida today mark a return to basics?