Wednesday, June 11, 2003
President Bush has a bad habit of lowering expectations and it may be something the Democrats can use. He is also pretty good at revising history.
In the Middle East peace trip he just made, supporting his "roadmap" to peace involving an independent Palestinian state, Bush offered a modest definition of his expectations for the talks -- "I was hoping to have honest dialogues" -- and said those expectations were met.
Sounds like Georgie boy is not going to do much more except scowl when Israel kills more palestinians and make public statements about how suicide bombers do not help right now. He will be all talk and no more action. The great thing for him is that no one expected him to succeed in the crisis, so he can't loose if nothing more happens to settle the problem!
Bush raised expectations that Iraq would smoothly shift to stability and that weapons of mass destruction would be found in abundance, he is so far unable to meet those standards. Georgie was publically overjoyed that he got the $350 billion tax cut package. He publically stated that this will take care of all our economic problems, he may have screwed up because, he has raised hopes for an economic surge. If the economy does not pick up he may continue to fault the twin tower disaster of 2 years ago as the reason. But he can't keep whipping that horse, it is already half dead.
Jumping into Middle East peace negotiations after saying he would do so only if the time was right, he has encouraged a belief that the time is, in fact, right for peace. however, I believe he will begin revising history and say that he did get them together and that the rest of the process is incumbent on the two nations not the United States.
Then there is the campaign for next year's election, in which Bush is the prohibitive favorite and his opponents are the ones fighting questions about their capabilities -- and therefore in a better position to exceed expectations.
"What he is doing systematically now is trying to reduce the expectations people have about what he's going to deliver," said Thomas E. Mann, a political analyst at the Brookings Institution. "It's worked exceptionally well. But in the end, reality counts. He can do whatever he wants with expectations on domestic and foreign policy, but if the economy is sluggish and the aftermath of Iraq sours, those are the realities he will face." One big problem is that the american people have been hijacked by bush's neo-cons. No one cares if he delivers or not.
Bush's political foes are grudgingly impressed by his ability to set low requirements for his success -- sometimes retroactively. "They created the science of setting the bar low," said John Weaver, the strategist behind the primary challenge to Bush by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). "In fact, they dug a trench and set the bar in it, and he's able to walk over it. They should get some credit for that. He's been able to get away with that."
Isin't it interesting that Georgie is the most powerful person in the world. He has the most advanced fighting force in the world, he controls both houses in the Congress, the Supreme court is mostly conservative, the U.S. is the most powerful economic power in the world and yet, he continues to low ball what he is able to do.
President Kennedy stated a great vision, when he said he wanted someone on the moon, and used his influence to make it happen.
Bush has much more power than Kennedy. He could focus all his power and influence to significantly move us towards a cure for Cancer, AIDS, heart disease, or any number of diseases. He could focus his efforts on education, get a computer and the internet into every home. He could support teacher pay and support. He COULD do ant number of things.
Instead, he focuses on pro-big business items or items that sound good to low income people, knowing he will let them die in Congress.
Is it ashame and sinful that we LET him low ball expectations, when he is obviously in the driver seat with all the chips on his side of the table.
Has our country given up our power as citizens? I know he does not listen to "focus groups" no matter how large the protest gets. What will it take to make the people give a damn! No one seems to care to do something about Bush's obvious poor performance as a President. Have we all been cowed into saluting the flag and the president at the same time, without thinking?
I am starting to feel like a mad man screaming into the wind.
In the Middle East peace trip he just made, supporting his "roadmap" to peace involving an independent Palestinian state, Bush offered a modest definition of his expectations for the talks -- "I was hoping to have honest dialogues" -- and said those expectations were met.
Sounds like Georgie boy is not going to do much more except scowl when Israel kills more palestinians and make public statements about how suicide bombers do not help right now. He will be all talk and no more action. The great thing for him is that no one expected him to succeed in the crisis, so he can't loose if nothing more happens to settle the problem!
Bush raised expectations that Iraq would smoothly shift to stability and that weapons of mass destruction would be found in abundance, he is so far unable to meet those standards. Georgie was publically overjoyed that he got the $350 billion tax cut package. He publically stated that this will take care of all our economic problems, he may have screwed up because, he has raised hopes for an economic surge. If the economy does not pick up he may continue to fault the twin tower disaster of 2 years ago as the reason. But he can't keep whipping that horse, it is already half dead.
Jumping into Middle East peace negotiations after saying he would do so only if the time was right, he has encouraged a belief that the time is, in fact, right for peace. however, I believe he will begin revising history and say that he did get them together and that the rest of the process is incumbent on the two nations not the United States.
Then there is the campaign for next year's election, in which Bush is the prohibitive favorite and his opponents are the ones fighting questions about their capabilities -- and therefore in a better position to exceed expectations.
"What he is doing systematically now is trying to reduce the expectations people have about what he's going to deliver," said Thomas E. Mann, a political analyst at the Brookings Institution. "It's worked exceptionally well. But in the end, reality counts. He can do whatever he wants with expectations on domestic and foreign policy, but if the economy is sluggish and the aftermath of Iraq sours, those are the realities he will face." One big problem is that the american people have been hijacked by bush's neo-cons. No one cares if he delivers or not.
Bush's political foes are grudgingly impressed by his ability to set low requirements for his success -- sometimes retroactively. "They created the science of setting the bar low," said John Weaver, the strategist behind the primary challenge to Bush by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). "In fact, they dug a trench and set the bar in it, and he's able to walk over it. They should get some credit for that. He's been able to get away with that."
Isin't it interesting that Georgie is the most powerful person in the world. He has the most advanced fighting force in the world, he controls both houses in the Congress, the Supreme court is mostly conservative, the U.S. is the most powerful economic power in the world and yet, he continues to low ball what he is able to do.
President Kennedy stated a great vision, when he said he wanted someone on the moon, and used his influence to make it happen.
Bush has much more power than Kennedy. He could focus all his power and influence to significantly move us towards a cure for Cancer, AIDS, heart disease, or any number of diseases. He could focus his efforts on education, get a computer and the internet into every home. He could support teacher pay and support. He COULD do ant number of things.
Instead, he focuses on pro-big business items or items that sound good to low income people, knowing he will let them die in Congress.
Is it ashame and sinful that we LET him low ball expectations, when he is obviously in the driver seat with all the chips on his side of the table.
Has our country given up our power as citizens? I know he does not listen to "focus groups" no matter how large the protest gets. What will it take to make the people give a damn! No one seems to care to do something about Bush's obvious poor performance as a President. Have we all been cowed into saluting the flag and the president at the same time, without thinking?
I am starting to feel like a mad man screaming into the wind.
# posted by Thomas @ 1:49 AM 
