WP: Missteps on Economy Worry Bush* Supporters

[kskiska]

Saturday, March 13, 2004; Page A01

A string of glaring missteps by President Bush's economic team has raised alarm among the president's supporters that his economic policymakers may have lost the most basic ability to formulate a persuasive message or anticipate the political consequences of their actions.

In recent weeks, the White House has had to endure its chief economist's positive comments about job "outsourcing," or sending work overseas; controversial passages in the annual Economic Report of the President; questions over the legitimacy of Bush's 2005 budget; a California swing in which Bush bragged about the creation of two jobs in Bakersfield; and a flap over a job-creation forecast that not even the president could stand by.

(snip)

"Clearly, the machinery's not working very well," said Bruce Bartlett, an economist with the conservative National Center for Policy Analysis, who noted that this White House has been known for its discipline on message.

(snip)

Several former administration officials said the debacle over Raimondo illustrated broader weaknesses in Bush's White House as he gears up his reelection campaign. Some Republicans said the situation crystallized their concerns about his weakened political position. These Republicans refused to speak for the record because they said that if they did, they could not be candid about the problems without infuriating Bush and his most powerful aides.

(snip)

And Karl Rove, who is on the government payroll as the White House senior adviser, is stretched thin between trying to watch what the administration is doing and overseeing the ramping up of a campaign that has accelerated its plans in response to Kerry's early lock on the nomination.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54446-2004Mar12.html

[xray s]

1. "Missteps"

yeah...that is like saying someone who trips over a ledge into the Grand Canyon "misstepped".

[I AM SPARTACUS]

5. trips...???...more like "flings himself off, taking us with him..."

[ramapo]

2. They did exactly what they set out to do

That is enhance the wealth of the top 10% and especially the top 1%.

They thought they could get away with it by providing token tax cuts to the middle class. The problem is they violated basic economic common sense, don't spend more than you have.

The Republicans preach trickle-down economics. What they've created is trickle-up.

[unblock]

3. top TEN percent?

speaking as a member of that rarefied top TEN percent, i can honestly say that net-net, bush did jacksh*t for ME.

his goal was never to help people like me. true, i got the shaft less than those further down the economic ladder, but i'm still just part of the masses as far as the bushists are concerned. he ONLY cares about the top HALF of the top ONE percent. and then, only if you're willing to contribute to his campaign or otherwise funnel him your money.

personally, sure, my federal income taxes got a modest cut. but, i've have no raises, no bonuses, my investments have gone nowhere (except, fortunately, my house, and you sure can't be proud of insanely low interest rates needed to keep the economy from completely going under). plus, my property taxes have gone up, and i'm young enough that i'll have to pay for his mountain of debt and i'll still get less social security than i thought i'd get even just 4 years ago.

note that the stock market is STILL a net loss on the bush years. the ONLY people making major coin under shrub are his major contributors. boardroom personnel only.

[ramapo]

4. I have to agree...I was being generous

I've been fortunate enough to have done quite well the past 10 years and never had any qualm about paying taxes (except when thinking about the scum who avoid paying their share...sorry if I offend anyone).

Anyway back to the tax cuts, from Reagan to Bush. I've tallied up my total tax burden (local, state, federal). The only thing that trickles down are taxes.

The Republicans love to cut funding. But the money has to come from someplace. Hence higher local and state taxes. My local property taxes have gone up 5X+ in 20 years.

Who cares about a cut in FIT?

[pfitz59]

20. I agree with you...

Clinton-Gore policies were great to me and my family. Under Bush our income (from all sources) has been halved! Who cares about tax cuts when crime is rising, religious fundies are infesting DC, US is at war around the globe, deficit is sky-rocketing and US workers are getting the shaft. That great capitalist Henry Ford paid his workers very well because he knew THEY were his prime consumers! The ONLY people profiting under Bush are his slimy, oil-patch and defense industry war-profiteering scumbag friends!

[I AM SPARTACUS]

6. "the only thing that trickles down is urine..."

...with credit to my one of my poli sci profs during the era of reaganomics...

[Zero Gravitas]

7. Its the JOBS stupid!

Bush is so unconvincing when he tries to sound sympathetic about out sourcing, even by his low standards of credibility. And of course he can't not spew the corporate propaganda about how exporting large chunks of the American middle class is "good for the economy". Surely, even those the most addled by Limbaugh and Fox "News" can see what utter bullshit that is.

[alcuno]

8. In the words of Dick Cheney, "It's our due."

I read this article and it's much too generous to our Grifter in Chief and the thieves and bandits he's surrounded himself with. I saw no mention of the 30% increase on the sham prescription drug program costs.

[DBoon]

9. ..could not be candid about the problems ...

People withholding the truth because they are afraid of retaliation from The Big Leader is what has brought down many dictatorships.

[yardwork]

10. All they care about is how it LOOKS!

....his economic policymakers may have lost the most basic ability to formulate a persuasive message or anticipate the political consequences of their actions.

What about the millions of Americans with no job and/or no health insurance?

And all they care about is how it looks?

These assholes make me furious.

[truthisfreedom]

11. rove is the weak link in bush's election campaign. here's my thoughts.

rove has been working non-stop since bush was inaugurated to keep this misadministration positioned positively in the public light. no other person in the history of the United States has ever had to endure this level of stress.

rove has assembled, with his wacky band of admin mafioso, an increasingly complex set of lies which get harder and harder to prop up as leaks appear (people get "resigned" and eventually talk, inconsistencies develop as high-level people in other countries speak out saying the opposite of what's been purported, etc.)

rove is at this point in a massive struggle to create plausible denial scenarios to fight an extremely efficient and brutally-timed set of attacks by Kerry's team as he leaps into a fight early, before even being selected officially as the Democratic nominee.

rove is exhausted spiritually and emotionally and, as far as any of us knows, physically. he's been doing the impossible for a long time, and suddenly, without really being prepared for it, he has to gear up to fight a real politician who seems to be showing a side that was completely unexpected... that of being PROUD OF BEING A LIBERAL. rove had been planning for some time to deal with Dean, and take advantage of Democratic infighting, but for some reason, it suddenly disappeared and rove simply doesn't have enough notes to put other people on "the team" to work preparing for the fight and reacting to changes.

bush has "taken the reins" without permission several times in the recent past. his blunders, like the one with tim russert and his exhuberant behavior at the possibility of two jobs being created (they'll never materialize, we all know that) have put rove in the impossible position of trying to make a silk purse of a sow's ear... so he's done NOTHING. this is not classic rove style. we'll be seeing a lot more of this in the future as rove is stretched thinner and thinner trying to cover the administrations ever-expanding ass at the same time as trying to recover an offensive position against Kerry's amazing think-tank, who is determined to keep bush on the defensive and has endless ammunition to do so.

rove has had the rather relaxed position, in the past, of handling little problems here and there in the relative calmness of the media giving bush a free pass. bush and cheney have stonewalled all over the place and rove's job has been a consistent, happy activity... there's been literally zero possibility that bush would be held accountable for any of his radical positions by a rethug-controlled congress and it's been in the media's best interest to play along with the pretend "patriotism" angle as we remained in shock over the events of september 11th, 2001. now, everything seems to be changing... America's citizens seem to have recovered their bearings to the extent that we don't get teary-eyed anymore at the tired images of fake firemen in plastic halloween firemen hats replaying the horrors. and his lock-step rethugs seem to have developed the unfortunate habit if looking out for their own skins... possibly because some of them, if not most, are fearing that bush will completely hose up this campaign, and they need to set up some protective positions back at home.

rove can't effectively use the terror angle to help bush win if we are attacked again. for some reason, the idea has taken hold that if we ARE attacked, after all of the radical approaches that have been used (subverting the Constitution, playing with the rules of war, etc, etc) it will show that bushco's pretense of "new rules for a new world" hasn't worked. America seems close to agreeing already that giving up the symbols of what makes us the greatest nation on earth simply isn't worth it anymore.

the only real strength bush had, coming into office representing accountability after the manufactured idea that Clinton was somehow bad for our country because he tried to cover up a fling with a relatively overweight and uninteresting intern was still fresh in our minds, has COMPLETELY disintegrated as we've watched him become a secrecy freak, stonewalling, hiding behind parsing of the rules, and generally looking like a cheat and a liar every few months. accountability was part of his original platform... yet now, he wants to blame Clinton for the economy and the events of september 11th, 2001. this discontinuity haunts karl rove to no end... there's no way to resolve it, so rove is forced to abandon the accountability stance. Kerry's brilliant team will make short work of this problem. bush will be endlessly protrayed as a "blamer" who can't take responsiblity for what's happened on his watch.

it goes on and on. i could list endless examples illustrating how rove's job has become unmanagable, but i think these few make it clear... OF ANYONE ON EARTH, I WOULDN'T WANT TO BE ROVE FOR THE NEXT 8 MONTHS.

[Florida_Geek]

13. Good post

The problem with Rove is also control and he wants to be "in" on all meetings. You right, it is hard to be spread so thin. If Rove was to have a major health issue, his style of control do not lend itself to lower level people covering for him while he is sick.

[snippy]

15. Good post. Rove is spread thin and has been from day one.

He not only is involved or has veto power in every policy making decision in the White House, including national security, he also gives briefings and presents polling data to direct decision making at nearly every agency in the federal government. On top of all that, he is responsible for the campaign. I wonder whether there ever has been one individual so involved with so many aspects of the federal government.

[Arugula Latte]

19. Rove "spread thin" ...

so to speak...metaphorically... :)

I agree. This is an insightful post.

[cliss]

21. heh heh, TIF. Thanks for the encouraging news...

I think you're right about Rove and the re-election campaign. I think I smell some desperation in the air....and some sweaty armpits.

It's obvious that they were ready to use the Terrorism card...right out of the box. Last week, the Bush campaign aired some ads referring to 9/11 in a tasteless display of a willingness to use other peoples' deaths for their own gain. The public was indignant, as expected. I think they knew there would be objections; they just wanted to see how much indignation there would be.

I read last week that the public's perception about Bush is changing. It seems that Kerry's (and other Democrats') incessant carping about Bush has had an effect. I was so surprised! It seems that repetition made a difference.

So my question to Rove would be, "what card do have left?"

[radfringe]

12. heard one GOPer dismiss bush* supporters concerns

basically saying - Repug concerns about bush*/Rove's handling of campaign are baseless. These Repugs are not part of the "inner" circle and don't know what is really going on behind the scenes...


ummm... Doesn't that make the conservatives and GOPers who are expressing concerns - unpatriotic? Didn't they get the memo to sit down, shut up and just wave a flag?

[truthisfreedom]

14. "behind the scenes"? hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

that's the place where we all are. we understand bush's 'behind the scenes' scenarios better than karl rove does, at this point.

the skirts have been lifted on bushco's "behind the scenes" scenarios. and it has a big fat cellulite-covered @$$.

[dbt]

16. Sorry, Washington Post, these have NOT been missteps.

Everything that the Regime has done about/with/to the economy has been carefully planned to put as many dollars as possible into as few hands as possible. It's a drive-by looting.

My! Just a couple of years ago, that would have sounded like :tinfoilhat:, wouldn't it?

:evilgrin:
dbt

[Nay]

18. My feelings too, dbt. It's been the plan all along, and

their only worry is that they won't be able to bullshit us long enough to loot the country for 8 years instead of just 4. Effing Bastards.

[Rebellious Republican]

17. See my reply to another thread, from a former repub!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=419516#419617