Is Bush down in Crawford morphing into a "moderate" ?

[kentuck]

Will he come out right after the Democratic Convention a "moderate" and a president for "all the people"? Will he start giving lectures about civility "helping your neighbors"? In other words, will he try to counter John Edwards and the Democratic message of hope and unity? Will he slink back into Washington like a chameleon?

We won't see the arrogance, the swagger, the "bring it on" attitude. Gone will be the defensive and smirky attitudes of his recent press conferences. He will refuse to criticize his opponents - he will leave that to others. He will try to be above the partisanship of politics. He will be a new man whose main job is to defend our great nation from those terrorists...

[Bettie]

1. He's down there writing....

"I'm a uniter not a divider"

on a chalkboard, 500 times.

Yeah, he probably will come out with some more lies about being "compassionate" and "moderate".

I CANNOT understand how anyone believes a single word the man says!

[GreenArrow]

2. he's down there morphing into a Lizard

.

[ewagner]

3. Not sure about that

The assumption made by the Democrats is that we have to be "moderate" to capture that small percentage of moderate, middle-of-the-road voters. We're assuming the Repubs are thinking the same way. But I'm not sure that's true.

Moderates and middle-of-the-road voters will evaporate under the pressure of Patriotic appeal or fear. Bush has been successful at painting the Democratic Party as extreme, unpatriotic and weak on defense/security. In other words, he tries to divide the electorate in a different way and to his favor.

There is a chance, because of the absolute arrogance of these SOBs, that they will come out in full patriotic/fear attack mode to try to cut the electoral pie in their favor.

on edit: I'm slow...didn't see reply post #1. He can't use compassionate conservative again, because he totally abandoned it during his tenure.........he can't use that ploy again.

[napi21]

4. You're right about him trying to do that, but

I doubt it will work. In another thread, I asked what he was like as Gov. of Tx. It seems something is getting to him, BAD! I don't know if it's the pressure, the fear of losing, some substance, or maybe that everything is going wrong at the same time and he can't stop it.

I don't think he's going to be able to morph that far.

[emulatorloo]

5. Oh absolutely - Karen Hughes told him he is the "Peace President" now

Look at speaker line-up . . . .moderate repubs who support stem cell, abortion rights, gay rights, etc.

[freetobegay]

6. Nope

At this point he can't afford to lose his rightous base.

[BarbaRosa]

7. From what I recall it's SOP

He goes moderate just before elections, fakes everyone (well almost everyone)out, and then zap back to the hard right.. creep

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. It worked for him in 2000.

I'm sure there are still gullible people out there that will believe it again.

[MichaelHarris]

9. in all seriousness

we should all meet here when he gives his speech at the RNC and take a shot of tequilla everytime he mentions 9-11. What a party that will be. Maybe we could organize it into a national event. Jose Cuerrvo would be happy.

[louis-t]

10. They are going to have to

do some fancy med meddling to turn him into anything resembling moderate.

[HFishbine]

11. The disadvantage of an incumbent

is that it's hard to make promises if your record doesn't support them.

[hatrack]

12. He's down there pounding Mr. Teddy w. his fist to safely vent rage

He's down there slamming Jack Daniels shooters and then scrubbing the puke out of the bathroom grouting the following morning.

He's down there waking up each morning and wondering where those Goddamned bruises on his shins and shoulders keep coming from.

He's down there searching through his Rolodex for his comrades-in-arms from the Alabama National Guard so he can make a triumphal entrance in New York.

He's spending long hours staring at the bathroom mirror, wondering why his pupils are so big even when the flourescent light's on.

[Blue-Jay]

13. Nah, he's just down there gettin' drunk.