{"id":7113,"date":"2006-04-11T14:52:05","date_gmt":"2006-04-11T18:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7113"},"modified":"2006-04-11T14:52:05","modified_gmt":"2006-04-11T18:52:05","slug":"all-bush-needs-to-do-is-______","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/all-bush-needs-to-do-is-______\/","title":{"rendered":"All Bush needs to do is ______"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the president’s support in freefall, it’s fascinating to see his media allies step up with comeback plans. [tag]Fred Barnes[\/tag] offered his four-part “keys to a successful comeback<\/a>” two weeks ago. Yesterday, National Review’s [tag]Rich Lowry[\/tag] unveiled a seven-point plan<\/a> of his own. Here’s an abbreviated version:<\/p>\n

* “Accept an enforcement-only immigration bill” and abandon the guest-worker idea;<\/p>\n

* “Give some speeches denouncing eminent domain abuse”;<\/p>\n

* “Talk about the economy” and replace John Snow at Treasury;<\/p>\n

* “Endorse the Ponnuru tax reform plan,” which is basically centered around child-tax credit expansion;<\/p>\n

* “Push for the confirmation of his circuit judges that are pending”;<\/p>\n

* “Veto a spending bill”;<\/p>\n

* and “sit-down with conservative bloggers.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To his credit, Lowry acknowledges that his “plan of action” is “thin.” It was motivated, he said, by the frequent conversations he has with other conservatives, which apparently end up with everyone rhetorically asking, “Well, what can [[tag]Bush[\/tag]] do now?”<\/p>\n

Far be it for me to offer the right advice on this, but I think lists like these badly miss the point. I suppose it’s possible that Bush might make a few far-right voters happy with, for example, some tough talk on “eminent domain abuse,” but these bullet-point, back-of-the-napkin kind of wish lists are predicated on the idea that the president is just in a bit of a slump. A few initiatives here, a well-received speech there, a little luck, and presto — Bush’s approval ratings are back at 40%.<\/p>\n

To say that this underestimates the scope of Bush’s problems is a dramatic understatement.
\n
\nConsider, for example, the item from National Review’s George Conway<\/a> that led Lowry to write up his game plan in the first place.<\/p>\n

I’ve never voted for a Democrat in a general election in my life, and I don’t expect to anytime soon, but it’s been impossible for me over the past couple of years to get enthused about the Republican party. I voted for President Bush twice, and contributed to his campaign twice, but held my nose when I did it the second time.<\/p>\n

I don’t consider myself a Republican any longer. Thanks to this Administration and the Republicans in Congress, the Republican Party today is the party of pork-barrel spending, Congressional corruption — and, I know folks on this web site don’t want to hear it, but deep down they know it’s true — foreign and military policy incompetence. Frankly, speaking of incompetence, I think this Administration is the most politically and substantively inept that the nation has had in over a quarter of a century. The good news about it, as far as I’m concerned, is that it’s almost over.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Just to make it absolutely clear, Conway is a conservative, writing for one of the nation’s most notable conservative magazines. And Bush has caused him to not want anything to do with the GOP anymore.<\/p>\n

Call it a hunch, but a seven-point plan that emphasizes, among other things, White House connections with right-wing bloggers, won’t turn this ship around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the president’s support in freefall, it’s fascinating to see his media allies step up with comeback plans. [tag]Fred Barnes[\/tag] offered his four-part “keys to a successful comeback” two weeks ago. Yesterday, National Review’s [tag]Rich Lowry[\/tag] unveiled a seven-point plan of his own. Here’s an abbreviated version: * “Accept an enforcement-only immigration bill” and abandon […]<\/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-7113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7113","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=7113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7113\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}