No More Free Ride for Bush

[SoDesuKa]

Bush enjoyed a friendly press throughout his entire first term. He seemed to get away with everything, including a lack of diligence in responding to warnings of an impending attack in 2001. The press never held him to account for numerous mis-statements about the war in Iraq, and did not criticize his facile claims that tax giveaways stimulate the economy.

In his second term, Bush has to sell his ideas to an increasingly skeptical public. He's lost credibility everywhere except among simpletons like the Alabama voters who also chose to retain segregationist language in the State constitution. The Bush "down home" appeal is a PR trick - I don't know how he gets away with it.

The war and the economy are still big issues, and neither one is a winner. Monthly job growth isn't keeping up with the number of new workers, and the war is going badly. Can Bush coast for another four years? I don't see it happening.

[Spiffarino]

1. As long as the 4th Estate is owned by large mega-corporations

...he'll get away with it. Rove has a multi-pronged strategy for maintaining power that includes giving big media plenty of reasons to support Bush. They won't bite him as long as they stay well-fed.

[matt819]

3. You're right

He'll slide. Even when he tells the truth, as he did about how the Iraqis are not ready to provide security, he's admired for being so forthcoming rather than reviled for being an abject failure. The emperor has had no clothes for far longer than he's occupied the WH, and still the American people allow it. A month after the election his popularity rating is under 50%. Somehow these folks manage to live with this cognitive dissonance.

[The Doctor.]

2. Yes he will...

The media is firmly under 'conservative' control.

And there will be an 'Event' to rally American support to sweep into Iran.

That and the fact that Americans are too lazy and ignorant to care will ensure he never need worry.

[Dream of the Flood]

4. I see a light at the end of the tunnel

I was just speaking with a friend of mine, the lone Bush voter among us (he's not a Republican, and he has fairly strange reasons for voting for him which I won't get into here and which I barely understand myself--I'll just say I consider him a very smart person who has a bit of the Vincent Gallo type contradiction going on). He is now very much against him, not that he wasn't before--his vote was essentially a vote against Kerry since he is a blue stater where his vote wouldn't matter anyway--as I said before, I don't really quite understand his reasoning myself. But anyway, he is predicting that if some scandal doesn't bring Bush down, he sees a popular uprising in which even disgruntled military will simply defect and refuse to fight, and maybe even come out against him and the PNAC folk here at home. Here's hoping he's correct. We cannot endure another full four years of this evil.

[DieboldMustDie]

5. Bush doesn't have to sell anything...

to an increasingly skeptical public.   He has both houses of Congress and he's never going to run for "re"election again.   He doesn't give a rat's ass about public opinion. :grr:

[izzie]

6. I think the power will move to Congress and----

it will be Bush trying to make it do as he wants. He is a man who seems to pay back people who do not do as he tells them. We shall see how it works out. I think he wants his brother to run next but I also think Bush is for Bush first so he will still watch out for him self.

[SariesNightly]

7. All the people STFU

When all the people get fooled all the time, then THE people is the most guilty party.

I used to wonder how China could tolerate the corrupt communist regime, I wonder no more.

[Elwood P Dowd]

8. About 40% of us in Alabama didn't vote for that scumbag

Don't paint us all with that brush.

[SoDesuKa]

9. The Same Brush

I assumed that anyone who voted to retain segregationist language in the State constitution also voted for Bush. We're talking about the same group of people, aren't we? I don't think simpleton is too harsh a word.

[Doctor_J]

10. I dunno

Most sane people (the 52% or so who voted for Kerry) turned off the MSM long ago. I think the Big Media are just trying to recruit the plurality of the 48% by heaping increasingly lavish (and irrational) praise on DimSon. they can't ignore something like 20 dead soldiers altogether, but by next week they'll be back at the lickfest.