I always knew someday conservatives would be asking the question prominently on the minds of most rational Americans: Is George W. Bush an idiot? I just never knew that it would happen less than 2 years after his re-election. Conservative talking head Joe Scarborough recently asked that question on his show, and posted in his blog what can only be called an attempt to put distance between him and Bush, effectively putting his Libertarian cloak back on, pretending to be a friend of the little guy, calling Bush “not conservative”.
Scarborough is no friend of anyone left of the wrong right, but he’s no idiot. He obviously is preparing for a massive disaster in the Bush camp, and has leaned on the same strategy all conservatives have, either one, saying Bush is not a true conservative and pretend to be Libertarian (which are opposing ideologies btw) and rant and rave about how Bush never met a spending bill he didn’t like, stuck America’s nose where it shouldn’t have and failed in the efforts of war. Or there’s door number two, pretend Bush is not conservative enough, and chant the neo-con mantra, proclaiming Bush bumbled the war by not committing enough troops, failed to bring war against Iran and North Korea and also spent too much. The divided camp of the conservative party spells disaster in November, threatens to break the party in two and officially declares Bush a lame duck.
So much for political capital! It looks like Bush not only spent this country into debt; he blew his own political wad of capital into an extreme deficit. One so great, his own party is doing anything it can to walk away from him.
Hell even John McCain is starting to walk away. In recent years, with his eye on the presidency, he’s had the “straight talk express” re routed through bull$#!t town, seeking to reach out to the base of his Republican party. So he’s had to kiss up to Bush and even hire a few of Bush’s advisors, and always says crap like “I trust the president of the United States,” declaring his full support of the President, even on that stupid “allow foreign countries to run our seaports†deal.
Although yesterday on Meet the Press, he sung a different tune. While he may have used the same supportive statements, he has clearly distanced himself from the President’s war policy, taking the higher road and indicating, that even a candidate who hired 2 Bush presidential advisors, has enough sense to stay away from Bush on the number one issue on voters minds.
Bush not only has a deficit of political capital, he has a surplus of political poison.
In a recent CNN poll the commentator came to the conclusion that “Most Americans (54 percent) don’t consider him honest, most (54 percent) don’t think he shares their values and most (58 percent) say he does not inspire confidence.”
The CNN poll goes further, proclaiming “Bush’s stand on the issues is also problematic, with more than half (57 percent) of Americans saying they disagree with him on the issues they care about.”
You can only cry wolf so many times. Bush’s unprecedented PR blitzes (like sending Dick Cheney on talk shows to say the insurgency is in its last throws) are themselves in the last throws, they have reached a point where the public doesn’t trust him even on political lines, and that was Karl Rove’s greatest strength. Now, as his own intellectual elites run away from him, the tide has turned. His own political life and everyone connected to him is nearing the end, 2 years plus before he leaves office.
It all hinges on this election.