What’s our plan?

November 3, 2006

The president was campaigning today in one of the few places where he’s still welcome — a 35% approval rating will do that to a guy — and Mr. “Politics Has Gotten Ugly” rolled out his final campaign pitch of the season.

Bush said Democrats calling for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq aren’t unpatriotic, just wrong. […]

“If they say they want to win the war on terror, but call for America to pull out of what al-Qaida says is the central front in this war, ask them this question: ‘What’s your plan?’ ” Bush said at a rally for Missouri Sen. Jim Talent, who is seeking re-election in one of the tightest races in the nation.

“The truth is the Democrats can’t answer that question,” Bush said.

Of course we can. In fact, the more pertinent question is, “What’s the president’s plan?” The truth is Republicans can’t answer that question.

Because it didn’t fit in nicely with the GOP’s pre-written narrative, Bush & Co. have chosen to ignore it, but the fact of the matter is congressional Dems have laid out a plan for Iraq and the future of the war on terror. Indeed, they’ve done so more than once.

In April, Dem leaders unveiled what they called their “Real Security” plan (.pdf), which, oddly enough, explains how Dems would go about winning the war in Iraq. It’s actually a fairly detailed document.

A few months later, in September, the entire Dem leadership team and Gen. Wesley Clark held a DC event to unveil a broader national security document (called “The Neo Con“) detailing the administration’s counter-terrorism failures and describing a more effective way to keep Americans safe.

So, Dems have put their cards on the table. How about their friendly competitors on the other side of the aisle? Aside from “more of the same,” what, exactly, do we have to look forward to in the Republican vision for the future of Iraq and counter-terrorism measures?

(imagine image of crickets chirping and tumbleweeds rolling by here)

It’s an election season, so I suppose it’s inevitable, but what we have here is the latest example of Bush projecting. The strategy he’s embraced has failed, he has no plan for the future, and he has to try and help the GOP win some campaigns. What to do? Accuse Dems of having his faults.

No serious person could buy into this, right?

Update: On a related note, we’ve reached a point in which a Republican candidate for Congress, campaigning in a Republican district in Florida, told a VFW audience yesterday that the White House has a strategy for the war in Iraq — and the audience literally broke into laughter.

CB: …the more pertinent question is, “What’s the president’s plan?” The truth is Republicans can’t answer that question.

so they keep on keeping on what’s worked for them–deflecting, spinning, accusing and just making shit up.

  • It’s called projection. They don’t have a plan so they suppose that is the problem with the Democrats.

    Or maybe Boy George II just means the Democrats have proposed more than one plan, which is of course unacceptable when you haven’t the remaining brain power to read two conflicting plans and choose between them.

    Or it could just be that BG2 is a liar.

  • No serious person could buy into this, right?

    Well, no. Unless, maybe, that person worked a full time job (without all-day web access! 🙂 ) and had kids’ sports practices after work, and then chores and a little sleep – not much time to really dig into the issues themselves. The kind of person who has to count on the MSM for a little news and current events. And even then, such a person would only buy in if, perhaps, the Bush-through-the-looking-glass spin were force-fed to them without meaningful counterpoint in nice, digestable, 30-second bites with patriotic graphics and a perfectly coiffed newsreader.

    So I’m guessing 90%of Americans will in fact buy into it.

  • Who’s going to buy into this? Only the koolaid drinkers at this point. We’ve heard “stay the course” so often, we know that’s dubya’s plan. We just don’t think it’s the right plan. We don’t even think it’s A plan.

  • It’s a classic Catch 22. If the Dems did outline their plan in front of the cameras the ReThugs would say the Dems are aiding the terrorists by revealing their plans.

    What ShrubCo doesn’t get is people just don’t like them for any number of reasons. For the majority of people they’re on the same list with house guests and fish, and it has been a lot longer than three days.

  • “If they say they want to win the war on terror, but call for America to pull out of what al-Qaida says is the central front in this war, ask them this question: ‘What’s your plan?’ ” Bush said at a rally for Missouri Sen. Jim Talent, who is seeking re-election in one of the tightest races in the nation.

    “The truth is the Democrats can’t answer that question,” Bush said.

    I thought the plan was to let the terrorists win. Did the Democrats scrap it?

  • As any emergency room doctor will tell you, the first thing you do is stop the bleeding. We get to close up a major coronary artery this Tuesday.

    Then, all we have to do is start getting blood back to the brain, and then see if we’ve suffered any permanent damage.

  • I thought the plan was to let the terrorists win. Did the Democrats scrap it?
    Comment by brainiac

    LOL Yeah we want them to hurry up and win so we can bow to our Islamist masters and get some of that religious freedom we seek, and I hear they do wonders for poverty, unemployment and tolerance too. Democrats want to be progressive and the 6th century sounds like real progress.

    I hope a lot of those busy americans zeitgeist mentions at least look at bush on tv and say, “What’s your fucking plan?”

  • Every time I hear this garbage about the Democrats having no plan, I’m reminded of the end of the movie Thelma and Louise, where they drive the car off the cliff into the Grand Canyon. After they’ve driven off the cliff, but before they hit, I picture the driver (Thelma?) turning to Louise and saying, “So if you don’t like my idea, what’s your plan?”

    Bush drove the goddam car off the cliff, and right now, there are no good options. Democratic talk about various “plans” is just that: talk. It’s a necessary part of the political climate, but the truth is, no matter what anyone does at this point, things are likely to get a lot worse before they get better.

    There’s a reason why the military came up with the acronym “FUBAR.”

  • Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you …

    President Panasonic!

    Seriously, though, what bothers me most is that every single freakin’ newscast (especially here in Missouri, since that’s where he made the comment) will play this soundbite — some multiple times — without noting that the Democrats have, in fact, offered a plan.

    And if you don’t think that folks in the southern part of this state won’t buy this hook, line and sinker, you’ve obviously never been to the southern part of this state.

    Bush could’ve walked up on stage, sacrificed a virgin, ripped the head off a baby, and eaten cuddly little kittens raw, all while taking a massive dump on Jim Talent’s forehead, and they would still vote for the guy because he “don’t think them homos should get hitched.”

    Sure, that may be a bit of a stretch, but after spending six years in Springfield, it’s not much of one.

  • Okay … let’s try part of that again since we don’t need no double negatives:

    “And if you think that folks in the southern part of this state won’t buy this hook, line and sinker, you’ve obviously never been to the southern part of this state.”

    That’s better …

  • Democratic Plan for Improving Our Odds in Iraq:

    Step 1: Get control of one or more branches of government away from the incompetent, corrupt macaca-heads so any further plans have more than a snowballs chance in hell of being remotely relevant. Status Repurt Due: Nov. 8, 2006.

    Step 2: See Step 1.

  • Alright Unholy Moses, I can’t take this anymore. Now you’re writing things in blue. I’m not even up to italicizing yet. How do I bold? Italicize? Put things in pretty colors?

    Or is it as secret as Bush’s plan for getting us out of Iraq?

  • “If they say they want to win the war on terror, but call for America to pull out of what al-Qaida says is the central front in this war”

    Yeah, thanks for that last part, Dubya. Thanks a lot for diverting time, money, resources, and human lives to your PNAC wet dream, douchebag, instead of actually trying to deal with the threat of Al Qaeda.

    Ports secured? Uh, no.
    Tons of old Soviet weapons lying around? Uh, yes.
    Homeland security a joke? Uh, yes.
    TSA a joke? Uh, yes. Unless you count having to carry shampoo in a container labeled 3 oz or less in a plastic baggy as a major advance in airport security, that is.

    All so, what, we could capture Saddam and, in the process, destabilize the whole region? Sweet. Nice plan.

    After having heard and lived with Bushite rhetoric (FREEDOM! DEMOCRACY!), grade school foregin policy (CAPTURE SADDAM!), transparent scare tactics (TERROR LEVEL ORANGE!!), and ridiculously stupid homeland security measures (see above), even a plan that is to NOT do the same bullshit is a major advance.

  • You mean I can write all in bold? or italics? I hope you will all forgive me for my next few posts as I LOVE bold and italics. If I could, I would get myself a bold and italics suit and wear it every day (shades of George Costanza and his velvet suit).

  • (Congrats to Homer. I went there and still couldn’t figure it out.)

    Peter’s example (# 9) is perfect. We face a future of wiht a priority of cleaning up the Bush mess. That will have to be the plan.

    The “what would you do?” question that arises in every election is always a flawed trap. The reasonable answer is “I can’t tell you until I have access to all the info you have, and the power you have. Then I can make a realistic plan.”

  • ask them this question: ‘What’s your plan?’ ” Bush said at a rally[…]

    Heck, if you’re *that* short of ideas… if you need to ask the Dems… the least you could do is ask your own damn questions.

    But I don’t see why we should tell you; it’s proprietary info, sucker. Confidential. Secret; like Dickie’s log of visitors, you know? Available only to the elite 60% of the population. We’ll tell you after Nov 7th. Maybe. If we told you now, you’d only put it on some damn website, for all the terrarists to see. Go shopping somewhere else.

  • Conrad Burns says that priznat has a plan, he just isn’t going to tell us what it is. Isn’t that good enough for you?

    • Comments are closed.