Froomkin: Who Has No Plan?

[bigtree]

Friday, November 3, 2006; 1:20 PM

Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com

President Bush's foremost political liability going into the mid-term elections is that the American people aren't happy he took the nation to war in Iraq and don't believe he has a way out.

In other words, they think Bush made a mess and has no idea how to clean it up.

Now, in what may be the ultimate show of Karl Rovian chutzpah, Bush is righteously attacking Democrats for not having a plan to clean up the mess he himself made.

According to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll , only 26 percent of Americans think Bush has "developed a clear plan for dealing with the situation in Iraq." A resounding 69 percent don't believe he has a clear plan at all (not to mention a good one.)

And while Democrats have not united behind any one course of action in Iraq, the public does seem to have a pretty good idea about what they'll do if they take control of Congress.

Some 41 percent think Democrats will try to decrease the number of troops in Iraq, and another 40 percent think Democrats will try to remove all troops from Iraq. That's 81 percent in all who seem convinced that Democrats will try to reverse Bush's "stay the course" strategy, and start bringing the troops home.

much more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/11/03/BL2006110300860_pf.html



Text of Bush's speech this morning in Missouri: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/11/20061103-1.html

"So far the Democrats have refused to tell us their plan on how they're going to secure the United States. There's still four days left before the election, and there's still time for the Democrats to tell the American people their plan to prevail in this war on terror.

"So if you happen to bump into a Democrat candidate, you might want to ask this simple question: What's your plan? If they say they want to protect the homeland, but oppose the Patriot Act, ask them this question: What's your plan? (Laughter.) If they say they want to uncover terrorist plots, but oppose listening in on terrorist conversations, ask them this question: What's your plan? If they say they want to stop new attacks on our country, but oppose letting the CIA detain and question the terrorists who might know what those plots are, ask them this question: What's your plan? If they say they want to win the war on terror, but call for America to pull out from what al Qaeda says is the central front in this war, ask them this question: What's your plan?

"AUDIENCE: What's your plan?"



http://journals.democraticunderground.com/bigtree

[subterranean]

1. Bring it on.

I hope they do follow Bush's advice and ask DemocratIC candidates what their plan is. I'm sure most candidates would be happy to educate them.