{"id":6284,"date":"2006-01-09T10:49:41","date_gmt":"2006-01-09T15:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=6284"},"modified":"2006-01-09T10:49:41","modified_gmt":"2006-01-09T15:49:41","slug":"a-kinder-gentler-bush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/a-kinder-gentler-bush\/","title":{"rendered":"A kinder, gentler Bush"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The White House is subtly suggesting that Bush is prepared to turn over a new leaf &#8212; by embracing the same <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/nation\/washington\/articles\/2006\/01\/09\/kinder_gentler_bush_seen_as_06_style\/\">phony, cynical masquerade<\/a> used in the 2000 campaign.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Climbing his way out of low public ratings and facing a bruising battle to maintain Republican control of Congress, President Bush is seeking to resurrect his early reputation as a compassionate conservative who reaches across the aisle, according to officials close to the White House. [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>&#8221;He&#8217;s made a commitment to have this ongoing dialogue with Democrats and Republicans,&#8221; said White House communications director Nicolle Wallace. &#8221;It&#8217;s a sustained effort.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But critics who remember Bush&#8217;s days on the 2000 campaign trail, presenting himself as a compassionate conservative, only to govern as a pure conservative, view the president&#8217;s latest overtures with suspicion.<\/p>\n<p>&#8221;I view this not as a serious engagement with Congress in the hopes of passing legislation but as part of a public relations strategy to improve his standing and minimize damage in the November election,&#8221; said Brookings Institution political analyst Thomas E. Mann. [&#8230;] &#8221;The soft rhetoric of compassionate conservatism sits better with ordinary citizens than the big changes he wants,&#8221; said Mann.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Aren&#8217;t we a little past this by now? I can appreciate the fact that Rove &#038; Co. are probably a little short on new ideas, but will <i>anyone<\/i> buy the &#8220;compassionate conservative&#8221; line again?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The White House is subtly suggesting that Bush is prepared to turn over a new leaf &#8212; by embracing the same phony, cynical masquerade used in the 2000 campaign. Climbing his way out of low public ratings and facing a bruising battle to maintain Republican control of Congress, President Bush is seeking to resurrect his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}