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Bush, adjusting Time to Send a MessageBy Rick Horowitz The president of the United States would like you to know that he gets it. The president's political advisers are worried sick that voters still see their commander in chief as living in a bubble, so the president kept mentioning that he recognizes just how tough the war in Iraq has been. The president of the United States would also like you to know that he's flexible. The president's political advisers are worried sick that voters still see their commander in chief as a stubborn, my-way-or-the-highway sort who's perfectly willing to march the country right over a cliff rather than admit mistakes or change direction. So the president kept mentioning how flexible he is, and how he's always adjusting to changing circumstances, and how his military commanders are always adjusting, too, and how they'll all keep adjusting every time there's a need for adjusting, yesiree.
"Message: I get it, and I'm flexible." You have the feeling that if his advisers had told him he was losing support among voters who love chimpanzees, he'd have spent part of his latest news conference singing the praises of chimpanzees. This is what running scared looks like. And the question is: Will it work? You can take that question two ways. First, will saying all the right things over and over again be enough to convince voters to stick with him -- which is to say, to vote for his fellow Republicans -- on November 7? Second, will anything Dubya is saying in the run-up to Election Day count for anything at all once Election Day is behind him? Count me Dubious. The phrasing from one of the reporters at the press conference was harsh, but it got at something important: "Why shouldn't the American people conclude that this is nothing from you other than semantic, rhetorical games, and all politics two weeks before an election?" A reasonable question. Why this sudden candor, this sudden emphasis on lessons learned and "benchmarks" and the like, just days before voters go to the polls? Aren't those same voters entitled to wonder whether they're seeing a true change of heart, or simply the latest pre-election tactic from the House of Rove? Would the president be saying any of this if he weren't desperate to keep his support from hemorrhaging, desperate to retain complete Republican control of Congress? And what happens if he makes it through Election Day with his mission accomplished? What happens if the GOP somehow manages to hang on to both the House and the Senate? Well, all bets are off. Remember: This is the guy who, despite coming into office with fewer popular votes than his opponent had received, and as the beneficiary of major ballot glitches in the decisive state, and with the help of a Republican-leaning Supreme Court, governed -- not with an appropriate dose of humility, not from the center -- but from the hard right. This is the guy who, despite being returned to office four years later by a smaller margin than any re-elected president had managed to scrape together in nearly a century, declared himself the owner of a "mandate," and tried to impose ever-more-grandiose plans to reshape the country and the world. And if this same guy comes out of November 7 with his party still in control, with all the news stories saying he dodged a bullet, everything about him says he'll see it as validation -- for his policies, for his attitude. Everything about him says he'll go back to doing things exactly the way he'd been doing them before political necessity temporarily interfered. So the question really is: What will make George Bush really change? And the only answer is: A stomping. An Election Day repudiation too big to dispute, to deny or explain away. It's like the farmer and the mule and the 2-by-4 -- first you have to get his attention. If George Bush thinks he won, we lose. Posted 10/26/06.
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Rick Horowitz
