The Stupidity of American's United
The people behind the Americans United’s anti-Bush campaign have got to be stupid! Why spend $8.5 million dollars on a program to ensure that an already unpopular president’s approval ratings decline even further? It’s a waste of time, resources and energy on a politician who is constitutionally barred from seeking reelection to the White House.
According to a group spokesman in 1987 as Regan left office his approval rating went from 42 percent to 63 percent suddenly making him a rallying point for conservatives and their ideology. According to Americans United Brad Woodhouse, “Progressives are still living with that.”
Woodhouse’s notion is far fetched. Reagan was a far more popular president than Bush, even at his lowest approval ratings which had to do with suspicions of Alzheimer’s and the Iran-Contra affair. Regan was also a more charismatic leader and when he spoke people listened to him. Bush is more often a victim of his poor public speaking skills than not. Let’s also not forget that after Reagan’s successor, Bush Sr., progressives had a two term president in Bill Clinton.
Woodhouse seems to be living in the past to the point where he may not realize that the world is a completely different place today then it was in 1987. Conservatives today do not need George W. Bush to keep their stranglehold on American politics. Most, but a hard-core few have begun disassociating themselves from him. Bush, himself, is remaining in the background as far as the 2008 presidential race is concerned.
If they want to ensure that a more progressive and liberal friendly president occupies the oval office they need to be focusing their time and energy elsewhere. Their previous campaign against Bush’s 2005 plan to overhaul social security was successful…but it was successful in part because it made sense. This current one does not.
None of the Republican presidential candidates embrace Bush and some, notably McCain and Huckabee, have been quite critical. Bush’s current approval rating, according to a recent Associated Press poll, is about 34%. This is not a president who is going to be leaving a legacy behind that will help other conservatives. In fact many of the power players in the Religious Right are unhappy as they feel betrayed that he didn’t do enough to further their faith based agenda during his 2 terms as president.
Bush has always been a party centrist who has lost his way. Pandering a little to the religious right who helped him get reelected is only part of this problem. It was his ill conceived occupation of Iraq which distracted him from seemingly everything else that caused him to lose his way. Bush has always been a misguided leader who wanted to use our military prowess to protect our country but lacked any personal military prowess himself. This distraction has kept his attention from being focused on our economy and played a big part in his dismal performance to the disaster of Hurricane Katrina.
Bush will be remembered as a widely unpopular and controversial president. Years from now some may find that he was right on in his assessment of Iran and other terrorist supporting nations. But his arrogance and stubbornness and general lack of diplomatic skills will be seen as a strong contributing factor in his unsuccessful war on terror. It will be observed that he took nearly unconstitutional liberty with our civil liberties and the treatment and torture of detainees will be seen as a blight on our countries history for years by many.
It’s one thing to lay blame at the president’s feet where it is due, in terms of Iraq and even Katrina, but to hold him solely responsible for the sub prime mortgage meltdown is foolish and typical of knee-jerk progressives who don’t understand all the factors involved.
No one in this country wants another George W. Bush in the oval office, not conservative and not liberals. The people and the candidates who are focused on the future are the salvation of this country. Organizations such as American’s United are reactionaries who may do more harm then good at a time when the president and congress are starting to focus some long overdue attention on our national economy.