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| Fifth Column |
| Dems Dredge up Duplicate Dopy Drivel |
| 2005-08-23 |
| Page 19 at the link, reprinted in its entirety, with snarky comments. If youâre a baby boomer, you probably remember the classic â60s sitcom âCar 54 Where Are You?â The lyrics to the theme song were: âThereâs a holdup in the Bronx. Brooklynâs broken out in fights. Thereâs a traffic jam in Harlem thatâs backed up to Jackson Heights. A scout troop is short a child. Khrushchev is due at Idlewild. Car 54 where are you?â The beleaguered Bush administration should adopt âCar 54â as its theme song. The Middle East has broken out in fights and the Bush administration is missing an economic policy to deal with sluggish economic growth, stagnant wages and soaring gas and health care costs. What is this, October, 2004? Recent national surveys show that President Bushâs job rating is lower than either Bill Clintonâs or Ronald Reaganâs at comparable points in their second terms. And one of them wound up respectable and one didn't. The reasons: guns and butter. The president receives bad grades for handling the war in Iraq and poor marks for dealing with the economy. This is the same message as last fall. First, take Iraq. Please. Americans have soured on the war and now believe that the United States was wrong to invade Iraq in the first place. Americans feel that Bush misled them on the rationale for the war, which was presence of weapons of mass destruction. Bush lied, kids died. Yeah, heard it before. The loss of credibility for the president is a crucial blow because Americans elected Bush oh, it IS 2005! because they believed he was honest enough to tell it like it is. So, where does that leave JFKerry? Voters donât feel that way any more that's debatable, but vague enough to be accepted by many and there is likely to be further erosion in the presidentâs standing. Events over the next few months will try the support that still exists for the war. Oh, thereâs still some left? If and when Iraq ever Iâm predicting not ever, as in, âthe sun will go cold, firstâ gets a new Constitution, more troops will go into Iraq yeah, we'll probably have to start up the draft rumors again to safeguard the elections and install the new government. Fighting will intensify as the public tolerance for American casualties decreases. If my punditry is successful, anyway, casualties will go up, and tolerance will go down The strong performance of Iraq war veteran, war critic and Democratic congressional candidate Paul Hackett in the special election in Ohio and the current Governors scandal about golf games will embolden Democrats and some Republicans to call for an American withdrawal. A few days ago, Sen. Russ Feingold, DWis., became the first potential Democratic presidential candidate to call for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq by the end of 2006. Feingold? A candidate? What happened to Hillary? And then thereâs the economy. Republican pundits complain the president isnât getting enough credit for the improving the economy. The reason the president isnât getting credit for improving the economy is that it isnât getting any better. All you have to do is to cruise the news for the headlines: âU.S. Retail Sales Wilted During Julyâ âWall Street Journal, Aug. 5 âEconomy Sputters as Gas Keeps Risingâ â USA Today, Aug. 17 Two headlines to prove the economy isnât getting any better? Never recovered, eh? Unemployment is, what â worse? The housing market â about to crash? Movie sales are down, that must be Bushitlerâs fault. People driving less? No? How could that be? Consumer confidence in the toilet yet? The USA Today article quoted Wal-Mart CEO F. Lee Scott, who said: âI worry about the effect of higher oil prices.â . WOW! No WONDER heâs a CEO! The impact could âerase improvements in employment and real income for an important part of our customer base,â he added. And gas prices could drop again after Labor Day. The wages of barely middle-class Americans have not kept pace with inflationary price hikes for health care and gasoline. Treasury Secretary John Snow admitted this when he told The Washington Post on Aug. 8 that âone of the things we know is that less educated people have seen their incomes and wages grow more slowly.â The Treasury secretary suggested that the answer to this problem might be better education. My suggestion is that the administration should abandon its economic program that favors rich GOP donors and corporate executives. Right. Letâs keep the poor people dumb, so they keep believing this tripe, and we can keep them as Victims-Voting-for-Democrats™ for life. The price of gasoline is where the rubber meets the road at the intersection of domestic and foreign policy. Every time, someone pulls into a gas station and looks at the price of a gallon of gas, the sight triggers anxiety about making ends meet and anger toward a foreign policy that has increased rather than decreased tensions in the oil-producing Middle East. Riiiiight. Look how good the âEngagementâ strategy is working in Iran. Why if John Kerry had been elected..... And while barely middle class Americans who shop at Wal-Mart are taking a hit, the oil companies are hitting it big. Last year, Exxon-Mobilâs profit was $25.3 billion. God only knows what the oil giantâs profits for 2005 will be. When did God show up on the Democratic radar screen? Oh, yeah â values! Itâs easy to imagine George W. Bush and Dick Cheney as a latter day Francis Muldoons and Gunther Toodys sitting in their patrol car and sipping coffee while New York City goes to hell in a handbasket. But it is harder to figure out where they will get the gas if they ever get their car in gear. I think the last worthwhile piece this guy wrote was the final episode of Car 54, Where Are You? Brad Bannon is a Democratic campaign consultant and pollster. |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #5 Why would the rest of us care about analogies based on a television show we've never heard of? The ones the writer needs to convince are the new voters, the ones who'll be old enough to vote in 2008, and to them he's coming off as an old fogey talking about how much better the world was when he was young. Everyone else made up their minds last November. As for the high gas prices, that's hurting oil-consuming world beyond our borders far more than it's hurting us in the U.S. Not that I'm thrilled, but my grocery store is giving me points worth 10 cents/gallon at its pumps, which I suspect is more than German or Chinese shoppers are getting. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-08-23 21:25 |
| #4 This is simple MSM assisted feces flinging. The Dems have been hoping since Bush won his first term they could bury him in it. Well it's paying off after 5 years. Problem is they are shoulder high in it now too. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet 0´ Doom 2005-08-23 19:07 |
| #3 LOL! Gas is too expensive. I make my children carpool with the neighbors kidz when they go to the beach. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-08-23 18:02 |
| #2 I'll say it again - this is another example of why Democrats should never hold the presidency. To go to war or continue a war based on popularity is no leadership at all. Poll numbers should never dictate battle. Dems/libs/anarchists/socialists/progressive/marxists are incapable of even running a radio network let alone lead a nation. A little advice too - put down the Manifesto, have an idea of your own. The same old tired cliches and class eny are done. Maybe it's time to put the Dem Party in a museum. |
| Posted by: MACOFROMOC 2005-08-23 16:51 |
| #1 If the economy is bad, I would love to see it in full swing. Low inflation, low unemployemnt, rising wages, greater exports.... yessireee. Bad economy. |
| Posted by: mmurray821 2005-08-23 16:26 |