{"id":8519,"date":"2006-09-20T14:40:41","date_gmt":"2006-09-20T18:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/8519.html"},"modified":"2006-09-20T14:40:41","modified_gmt":"2006-09-20T18:40:41","slug":"the-most-popular-republican-in-the-country-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-most-popular-republican-in-the-country-right-now\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The most popular Republican in the country right now’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dan Froomkin noted<\/a> today that the White House is in the midst of a “full-on PR blitz” for one of its own. Oddly enough, it’s not the President or the Vice President; it’s the [tag]First Lady[\/tag], who apparently is beginning to take on some policy responsibilities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What’s more, the public relations efforts are apparently paying off<\/a>. [tag]Laura Bush[\/tag] is on the campaign trail (she can go where Bush is unwelcome); she’s helping raise money for GOP candidates; and she enjoys a standing in the [tag]polls[\/tag] her husband can only dream of.<\/p>\n

The president has been a polarizing political presence both at home and abroad, but his wife remains popular. A Gallup-USA Today poll in June found that 69 percent of Americans had a favorable view of the first lady, much higher than the president’s approval rating of 40 percent.<\/p>\n

“I think she is the most popular Republican in the country right now,” said Myra G. Gutin, a first-lady historian at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think that’s probably true. I compared Laura Bush’s ratings against some of the nation’s better-liked Republicans — McCain, Giuliani, Rice — and none of them could compete with a 69% favorability rating. (Colin Powell<\/a> came closest.)<\/p>\n

I don’t have particularly strong feelings about Laura Bush, one way or the other, but isn’t it a little odd that she’s the most popular Republican in the country?
\n
\nGun Toting Liberal raised a good point<\/a>:<\/p>\n

[W]hat does it say about a political party when it’s most popular member is a lady who seldom speaks at all, and when she does, she speaks a message of peace, togetherness, love and finding common ground\u2026 and apparently, stands completely alone amongst her brethren with a popularity rating rivaling only that of Jesus Christ’s Himself? I don’t know about you all, but it speaks volumes to me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jesus hyperbole aside, GTL’s point is well taken. The GOP has controlled the White House for six years, and Congress for 12 years, and after all these years of trying to execute a conservative agenda, the most popular Republican in the country is the one who a) doesn’t have any responsibilities; b) hasn’t really done anything; and c) doesn’t say much.<\/p>\n

I suspect this has more to do with the plight of the Republican Party and less to do with the First Lady’s public appeal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dan Froomkin noted today that the White House is in the midst of a “full-on PR blitz” for one of its own. Oddly enough, it’s not the President or the Vice President; it’s the [tag]First Lady[\/tag], who apparently is beginning to take on some policy responsibilities. What’s more, the public relations efforts are apparently paying […]<\/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-8519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8519","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=8519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8519\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}