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How bad was Bush? Baaaaaaad.
So what else is new?
BY DAVID S. BERNSTEIN
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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2004, NEW YORK -- Give me $20 on Kerry. The second half of George W. Bush's 62-minute speech was fine, for those still watching. He flagrantly pushed Iraq as a 9/11 thing -- "Do I forget the lessons of September 11 and take the word of a madman?" he claims to have asked himself when contemplating the war. He spoke pretty well about his latest justification for the war in Iraq -- the neocon dream of ending terrorism by spreading liberty throughout the Muslim world. I suspect he is making a tactical campaign mistake with this argument; once you cut through the lofty liberty rhetoric, you're basically telling people you plan to do more Iraqs. I don't think Americans have got the stomach, let alone the wallet, for more freedom-spreading. Bush also did a fair amount of Kerry-bashing in the second half of the speech, another very suspect move. But I suspect a lot of folks never made it to the second half, or didn't care by that time. The President's men have been touting that the speech would contain all manner of new domestic initiatives for the next four years, particularly on the economy and jobs. Well, he listed a lot of initiatives. Not much was new, though, even though he seemed to think it was. For instance, he appears to have just discovered that a lot of mothers work nowadays. Not only that, but this generation doesn't work for one company for life and retire with a nice pension. No joke, he referred to these initiatives as ways to help transition through "this time of change." Um, where have you been, George? And George, if you want anyone to believe you're really introducing "a clear and positive plan" to lead us through "this time of change," you have to give it a name. The 21st Century New Freedom plan or something. I picked out a couple of things that sounded genuinely new for him, most notably laws promoting flex-time and comp-time plans, which his administration has been strongly against until last night. But, you know, that was before George heard that mothers have jobs now. Let's see; he said he wants to reduce corporate regulation, make tax relief permanent, outlaw "frivolous lawsuits," create economic opportunity zones, create personal social security accounts, "reform" medical liability law, move welfare recipients to the workforce, promote free trade -- um, George, I'm looking for the new stuff. I'm looking for anything that's gonna make those unemployed people in Ohio think you've got some fresh ideas. This is all the same stuff you've always championed. Most of it people already don't like, and they don't think it works. If W. had gone out there and said some really bold stuff -- maybe some real anti-corporate-pension-raider stuff or something -- that might have caught people's attention. He could have said he's going after those evil companies who outsource or move their headquarters offshore; that he's going to cap CEO compensation or that kind of thing. He wouldn't have to actually do any of it -- hey, how's that manned trip to Mars coming? Just say something that sounds like you're coming to the rescue. Don't just rattle off a huge list of your old -- and Clinton's old -- policies (did he really call for portable health insurance?). He didn't even sound like he meant anyone to remember any of them. And they likely won't.
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