The Dems have to face it: People like George Bush
Praise Bush?
The problem with George Bush, as far as the Democrats go, is that people just like him too damned much. I don't mean that in the sense that they vote for him, though that's pretty obviously the Ultimate Problem. I mean that they identify with him. They like him. Even when they might think he lied, even when they might think maybe he's not all that smart, the guy is just hard for a lot of people to dislike.
How do you not like a guy who partied his way through life and found a way to joke about it while somehow becoming President? (Yeah, yeah. I know. I'm with you.) But you hear his story and you imagine him to be like Marmalard from Animal House, a smug sweater-wearing Nancy Boy who throws his class and lineage in your face.
In fact, he isn't that at all. He's just a goofy guy. He says the wrong things. He smiles. He likes baseball. He talks plain and tough. People see him and they just feel a kind of kinship with him. He appears on occasions to be some kind of cross between Walter Mitty and a stand-in for whoever the real President should be, which is just how we would all feel if we were in his shoes.
Contrast that with Al Gore or Howard Dean. They both seem stiff in comparison, not too much at all like most folks. One's a doctor, one's a famous inventor, and they're both Ivy League all the way. And, most palpably, they want to be President so bad. We never get the sense that Bush really wanted it at all. It has it's own perverse charm for a lot of people.
And that's the problem: People like George because he has charisma. Liberals don't want to believe it, but it's obviously true. It was the same for conservatives and Clinton. No matter how much the media and the establishment wanted to bring Clinton down, they couldn't. He was just too good. They could have caught Clinton getting a lapdance from Lizzy Dole in Air Force One and he still would have beaten all comers in a general election. Same with Bush, though in a much different way. At a basic, elemental level, some people have charisma, and some don't. It doesn't matter if they lie about blowjobs, if they lie about wars, whatever. Those who have enough of it can be forgiven most any transgression. We forgave Clinton because he was James Bond incarnate, what women wanted and what men wanted to be. We forgive Bush because we think he's already so close to what so many of us already are.
My plan for the Dems? Praise Bush, as a person. Do it openly. Talk about what a nice guy he is. Easy going, funny, plain, the whole bit. In fact, over do it. Nobody is going to beat this guy if they try to portray him as an ogre, because that's not the reality that people see. That's right-Show him to be the yes-man, good time Charlie that he really is. Instead of Ogre, try Gomer...
Cheney gets in Bush's ear about the yellowcake
Does anybody really believe Bush is the despot, the Ultimate Bad Guy in this Administration? You think he's in there pulling the levers on this machine? Look, if he was such a power mad freak, he wouldn't have been biding his time for years in a drunken stupor while he continually bankrupted oil ventures one after another and traded Sammy Sosa (and Wilson Alvarez) for Harold Baines. Intuitively, I think people know that he's not the prime mover in his own Administration. They may not explicitly see that he's a patsy for the people who are really the Trouble in this country, people like Cheney, Wolfowitz, Ashcroft, DeLay, Grover Norquist and the like, but that's the Democrats' job in this upcoming campaign. They've got to say, "Get it? He's a patsy. He's just a face. He's just a guy like a lot of other guys, save for all the money and the power and the bought Yale education and stuff." Make this election less about the Nice Guy, and more about the Bad Guys who have his ear.
The Dem campaign needs to face that fact, that people will be more willing to believe that he's a simple, nice guy taken in by bad forces, than they will be willing to believe that he is some arch mastermind of repression and global profiteering and domination. He is clearly not a mastermind, and anybody with a brain can see that. Portraying him as some kind of demon will get you nowhere with the crucial middle.
Instead, the Dems need to take a "Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin" approach with Bush. They need to distinguish between Bush the Manchild and BushCo. They need to stand up and say, "Look, I like the guy. He's a nice guy, and I think he really meant a lot of that stuff he said the first time around about "compassionate conservatism" and whatnot. It's not him that's the problem, it's the people who control him." (Go ahead, call Bush Theoden and his advisors Wormtongues. We've all seen the movie!) Once you take out Bush the Man, Bush the Uniter after 911, Bush the guy who laughs at himself, the policies and the people behind him become somewhat less savory to most Americans.
I admit, it's an unorthodox way to run a campaign, but it's not all that out of line. It's fair game to talk about who candidates will appoint to cabinets and whatnot. What's unusual is to openly praise an opponent, but then call into question their ultimate involvement in the direction of their Administration. Essentially, it would be tantamount to saying Bush is incompetent. But is that really such a far cry from saying they were ineffective, or harmful, or whatever they were during the last four years? And besides, people will think it's really nice of Howard Dean or whoever that they are going out of their way to say what a nice guy Bush is. They'll think that's a wonderful departure from what they normally hear in a race.
I think it's worth a shot, because frankly, this tack of demonizing Bush ain't gonna fly. People just won't buy it, because they trust him, and don't really believe he's the bad guy people make him out to be. And honestly, I don't think he is, either. I think he's just a good ol' boy who was in the right place at the right time, and is just doing more or less what he's told to do, and having a decent enough time doing it.
Call it for what it is. He's a nice guy. That doesn't mean his appointees are. They're the problem. Attack them, and praise Bush!
3:20:42 PM 
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