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Awful Approval
Ratings
Bush Needs to Reassert Himself
By Daniel Muniz
George W. Bush’s approval ratings are awful. And by the looks of
things, there doesn’t seem to be much of a chance of any improvement
for the rest of his days in office. Even his staunchest supporters
are concerned because this type of harsh environment has plenty of
negative ramifications for the presidency as well as for the party
as a whole.
But what makes this situation so ironic is that the country is
actually in pretty good shape but you would never know that from
reading a newspaper. How did all of this happen?
The natural culprit is the media
Up to a certain point, that assertion is true. It is no secret
that the press is antagonistic towards this administration and has
been particularly ruthless with its incessant negative reporting. In
essence, the media has acted like a pack of jackals by becoming
obsessed with a “crisis of the moment” mentality in its exploitation
of current events.
They milked Hurricane Katrina and just about everything else
while conveniently ignoring the tremendous positive news that they
didn’t hesitate to highlight during the Clinton administration.
Today, there is a segment of the population that actually believes
that the president controls the weather and can prevent hurricanes.
Or that every local event is his sole responsibility like miners
dying in mine shafts.
Iraq is also a constant source of bad news regardless of the fact
that the press has again conveniently overlooked the enormous
progress that our troops have fought so hard to secure. That country
has had free elections, an emerging central government, and its own
troops are beginning to fend for themselves. But according to the
media, Iraq is always on the brink of civil war even though a
country like France is frequently experiencing ethnic tensions and
riots
But what about the good news?
There happens to be plenty of it if the media would only bother
to report it in its proper perspective. For instance, inflation is
relatively low and unemployment is at rock bottom. We also have a
growing economy with a robust stock market and the highest level of
home ownership along with low crime. Interest rates are inching
upwards because of a red-hot economy although for the past several
years, people have enjoyed the lowest rates in decades.
In fact, a number of Republicans are quite perturbed that a good
economy hasn’t translated into good approval ratings for the
administration as well as for the party. If a good economy doesn’t
help the party’s fortunes, then what will?
Incidentally, many American’s feel, that as a country, we are
still going in the wrong direction even though things are going
fairly well.
As a result, Democrats have taken full advantage of this charged
atmosphere. They have exploited every news event to its full
potential and they have set the stage for a future impeachment.
But how did things get so out of hand?
The media played a huge role in it. And so did the Democrats. In
fact the Democrats are adamant that this war and that they will do
anything to tear down this administration.
However, that is only a part of the problem. The other part rests
with Bush himself.
This administration is not any different than the previous ones.
The moment Clinton took office, Republicans declared war on him.
Rush Limbaugh created a calendar to mark the day that Clinton would
break each of his campaign promises. In fact, this war against
Clinton came to its culmination in the 1994 Republican takeover of
the House and Senate.
Even in the dark days of 1995 with a new Republican Congress
assailing him, with some claiming that he was now “irrelevant,”
Clinton struck back by famously stating that the “constitution makes
me relevant” and went on to win reelection. Again, even during the
dark days of the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the impeachment,
Clinton still kept fairly good approval ratings.
Political guru Dick Morris says this about Clinton’s turbulent
times:
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President Bill Clinton kept his job rating over 60 percent
through all the days of Monica and impeachment. It had nothing
to do with a good economy; as Bush is finding out, a growing GDP
doesn't guarantee growing approval ratings. Clinton went before
the nation every day with a new speech, an executive order, a
proposal, a bill signing or some other media event.
He didn't just
recycle his old proposals. Each day, he unearthed a new idea or
initiative to keep his daily majority. He knew that without it,
with an opposition Congress, he was a goner.
His initiatives were
widely varied: a rating system to help parents anticipate TV
content; school renovations; clearing out decaying public
housing projects; increased college scholarships; lower FHA
closing fees; national databases for child abusers; anti-tobacco
initiatives; expansion of family and medical leave; job creation
for welfare mothers - the list was endless. An entire White
House policy apparatus was charged with churning out the
initiatives.
At first, Press
Secretary Mike McCurry objected to the furious pace, contending
that we should have only one major event each week rather than
the daily prattle of proposals. But the polling showed that each
day's initiative got the attention of a quarter to a third of
voters and played a key role in keeping Clinton's majority in
line. |
One of the biggest complaints from the rank and file is that
Republicans don’t know how to defend themselves especially during
harsh criticism. And up to a certain point, that is true. The press
and the Democrats are vicious and relentless.
Unlike his father, George W. Bush fully understood that the
moment a president begins work on his reelection campaign is the
moment that he takes office for the first time. That rugged
campaigning produced hard fought results in the 2002 mid-term
elections as well as finally winning a majority of the popular vote
in 2004.
Unfortunately, Bush stopped campaigning after he was reelected.
And this inaction has created the mess that he is in now. The
president campaigned for four years of his presidency to get
reelected but that effort came to an abrupt halt after securing the
second term.
Dick Morris suggests the following:
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needs to tell his political team to start churning out events,
as they did before the 2004 election, every day, every week, and
every month. His presidency's future depends upon it.
Bush cannot afford
the self-indulgence of not working as hard as Clinton did to
keep his daily majority. |
Although he is not a great public speaker like Clinton or Reagan,
everybody knows that the president can defend himself when he wants
to. He has done so before and he should be doing it now.
For instance, every day he should have been visiting a rescue
crew in New Orleans so that he could help fashion the news instead
of it being done for him by the media. Because of wall to wall news
coverage, he should have spent every day
highlighting the facts of the courageous work of the first
responders of Hurricane Katrina instead of allowing the press to
grossly distort the reporting.
Dick Morris is right. Bush needs to “start churning out events.”
Right now, all it takes for an impeachment to happen is for a few
turncoat Republicans to give in.
The media and the Democrats smell blood. The Left-Wing is
relishing an opportunity for revenge. And if Bush doesn’t reassert
himself like the way that Clinton constantly did, Democrats will
continue to take full advantage of it.
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