I believe that much of the responsibility for for the criticism of GWB lies with Karl Rove and others of his “handlers”. Bush is an affable and personable man and an effective, if not inspiring, speaker. During the early years of this conflict they should have kept him in high profile, speaking frequently to the nation, power oint style, projecting leadership and transparency. Instead, they kept him silent, creating an impression of secrecy and conspiracy that are not a part of his character.
This applied not only to the war but also to domestic affairs. In the New Orleans hurricane crisis they should have had his feet on the ground in Louisiana within 24 hours displaying his high level of concern. Instead they released footage of him worriedly peering out of his plaane’s window, flying over the devestation to a dinner date in New York. Unforgivably stupid, just feeding the MSM sharks.
When they did, finally, get around to getting him speaking more frequently, it was too late to be effective. He could only look defensive, reactive, covering his ass in desperation.
Rove may be a great analyst and big-view strategist but he is a lousy presidential manager. McCain will be well advised to separate himself from Rove and any of Bush’s coterie both before and after his election.
Instead, they kept him silent, creating an impression of secrecy and conspiracy that are not a part of his character.
He wasn’t kept silent and it’s not Rove’s fault.
Often, when he’d ask the network for airtime, they’d refuse to break in their “sweeps” programming.
If you wanted to hear the President, there was C-Span.
Even the POTUS can’t force the MSM to air his speeches.
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In the New Orleans hurricane crisis they should have had his feet on the ground in Louisiana within 24 hours displaying his high level of concern. Instead they released footage of him worriedly peering out of his plaane’s window, flying over the devestation to a dinner date in New York.
Not stupid, but playing it safe!
They weren’t going to put the President into a situation that was still dangerous, where roving gangs were taking pot shots at rescue helicopters (Remember that?)
You don’t have to have the President personally in situ to know that he’s taking care of the problem.
He could only look defensive, reactive, covering his ass in desperation.
He was neither defensive, reactive nor covering his ass in desperation--the fault for 99% of the Katrina problems were down to DemocRat Gov. Blanco and NO Mayor Ray Nagin.
Rove may be a great analyst and big-view strategist but he is a lousy presidential manager.
Rove wasn’t a “presidential manager” and he’s gone.
McCain will be well advised to separate himself from Rove and any of Bush’s coterie both before and after his election.
McCain’s a big boy and can take care of himself.
And they don’t need to take advice from hyper-critical whiners like you!
Ed Goeas is President and C.E.O. of The Tarrance Group, one of the most respected and successful Republican survey research and strategy teams in American politics today
Bush is an affable and personable man and an effective, if not inspiring, speaker. During the early years of this conflict they should have kept him in high profile, speaking frequently to the nation, power oint style, projecting leadership and transparency. Instead, they kept him silent, creating an impression of secrecy and conspiracy that are not a part of his character.
Bush can hardly form a coherent English sentence without his handlers and professional speechwriters hand-feeding every word to him.
Obama writes his own speeches.
Come on....
In His Candidate’s Voice:
Jon Favreau has the worst and the best job in political speechwriting. His boss is a best-selling author who doesn’t really need his help, having written the 2004 speech that catapulted him onto the national stage. At the same time, the same boss also happens to be capable of delivering a speech in ways that can give his audience the goosebumps.
I certainly don’t hate him. I admit I have not been happy with some of his decisions/ideas regarding Israel and immigration, but for the most part, I believe he has done an excellent job considering the circumstances. I cannot imagine John Kerry, or any other liberal, being our President on (and after) 9/11. I thank God that we had President Bush for that.
I agree with Charlie and Theop, possibly the best President I have seen, maybe even better than Reagan.
On John’s original post: the 56% is more representative of Bush’s popularity. The approval rating in the 30s is due to antiwar people, but additionally due to people who want us to be more aggressive in Iraq than the President has been, thus who also disapprove. McCain is smart to recognize this.
I certainly don’t hate him. I admit I have not been happy with some of his decisions/ideas regarding Israel and immigration, but for the most part, I believe he has done an excellent job considering the circumstances. I cannot imagine John Kerry, or any other liberal, being our President on (and after) 9/11. I thank God that we had President Bush for that.
Get real one of the greatest wartime Presidents was a liberal.
Bush isn’t even fit to clean the shoes of the “liberal” who lead America in WWII.
Bush let Conservative America down when he refused to close our borders and pardon the 2 BP agents. The Bush family has extensive business ties in Mexico. George Bush ended up just like the rest of the phoney, lying, politicians.
Come now. The democrats had the white house and the congress while the enemies of our country engaged in a massive arms build up. When the war finally engulfed us we were ill prepared and almost lost.
Don’t hand me that FDR crap. If FDR has the insight of Reagan, for example, America would have been ready. In fact we might well have intimidated the axis with our strength.
Let me paraphrase Reagan: In my life my country has been in several wars. None of them were started because we were too strong.
FDR? He was too busy laying the ground work for socialism to bother with protecting my country.
Come now. The democrats had the white house and the congress while the enemies of our country engaged in a massive arms build up. When the war finally engulfed us we were ill prepared and almost lost.
Don’t hand me that FDR crap. If FDR has the insight of Reagan, for example, America would have been ready. In fact we might well have intimidated the axis with our strength.
Let me paraphrase Reagan: In my life my country has been in several wars. None of them were started because we were too strong.
FDR? He was too busy laying the ground work for socialism to bother with protecting my country.
Skip the Isolationist wing of the Republican party held the upper hand in the party before World War II. They were one of the main reasons we didn’t get involved.
The Leftists in America love to compare Bush’s job approval numbers to their hero Bill Clinton’s.
Even the laughably “nonpartisan” webiste Polling Report still, some 7 years later, prominently features Clinton’s numbers as a clickable link on the Bush job approval page.
The problem with these numnbers is that Clinton’s would be much lower if he had presided as Bush has, namely by not basing every move he makes with the calculation of how it will affect his polling. For example, if he had taken going after al Qaeda seriously, instead of as a law enforcement problem, his job approval numbers would be much lower. But he may have been able to prevent future attacks. But Bill took a poll before taking a dump in the morning, just to see which way the wind was blowing. We all know what later happened.
Bush doesn’t give a damn about his poll numbers now, and never did even when they were in the stratosphere right after 9/11. Those were numbers Bill Clinton could only dream of, and he and his media puppets have been jealous ever since.
They’re the ones who’ve driven his poll numbers down, not anything he has or hasn’t done. The fact that CBS, for example, has been regularly busted for doing polls that oversample Democrats by as much as 14 percent proves it in spades.
Bush can hardly form a coherent English sentence without his handlers and professional speechwriters hand-feeding every word to him.
And yet Dubyah and Jimmy Carter, who trained to serve on an atomic-powered submarine and in fact studied physics in college, both pronounce the word “nuclear” exactly the same way.
