Wright Predicts New Tone Debacle at Height of Bush's Popularity in November of 2001

911tone

IS THE PRESIDENT "TONE DEAF?" ......OR

LEARN THE LESSON OF AGFANISTAN...FIGHT HARD

RALEIGH - Just about everybody right now loves President Bush. His approval ratings are somewhere between 80 and 90 per cent depending on which poll you look at. That puts him slightly ahead of eight week old puppies. Even reknown liberals are falling all over themselves to get a good seat on his bandwagon. He is on a roll. Were we close to election day right now, likely he would not even be opposed save a token effort from someone like Jesse Jackson.

So while many unlikely folks are begging for seats on the Bush express, let me temporarily vacate my assumed seat and find a cloud among all of this silver lining. It is instructive to remember that for approximately nine months, our 43^rd President was going mostly nowhere with his "new tone" policy of non-engagement with the Democrats in Washington. His approval rating was at about 50%, his legislative batting average was hardly any better and his judicial average was zero. For all of his success as Texas Governor, he was not having much luck changing the tune in D.C. to his "new tone." The Democrats in Texas are more like the middle of the road Republicans in Washington. Bush and his new tone strategy was akin to taking a knife to a gun fight. For all of the credit they receive as confidants, Karl Rove and Karen Hughes have no track record of success in D.C. and forging a statistical tie with Gore's election team does not impress.

So the new tone was failing. Attempts to appease Senator Jim Jeffords failed (as appeasment ALWAYS does) and he jumped ship. That handed the wheel to Tom Daschle. The Dakotan has only one tune...hard core leftist politics. As an example was his glee over sidelining the Bush judicial nominees. Forget that this delays justice for millions of Americans due to backlogs, this is partisan politics baybe!

Then on September 11, the tone did change in Washington. It is safe to say that it had NOTHING to do with Bush's new tone strategy. It was time to rally around the flag, the President and the military. And most Americans did, including Washington D.C. congressional Democrats.

Now remember, however, that Bush did not really get in front of this momentum until two moments. The first was when he grabbed the bullhorn in the ruins on September 14^th and assured New Yorkresucers that he "could hear (them)" and  "soon the people who knocked down these buildings will hear from all of us." The second was his magnificently straight forward address to the joint session of Congress. That talk was very simple and very hawkish and totally non-compromising.

Now Bush had HIS new tone. And it was kick butt. America was now rallying around their President. And it had nothing to do with his trying to reach out to anyone. Even those reticent to strike back were moved by his confidence and the simple straight forward way of explaining who we would strike and why we would strike them. There was no concensus here. There was simply leadership.

Unfortunately, his domestic strategy is more about kissing than kicking. There seems to be no realization in the White House that while most everyone is united in the war against Al Queda et al, the dynamic is not the same with regard to the war over policy. And that war rages on. The Democrats are fighting hard for what they believe. The Republicans, with their leader AWOL on this one, are not fighting a good fight in return. Now THIS is asymmetrical warfare!

History does not have to be examined too carefully to reveal the last time the Bush family lived this lesson. President Bush 41 went hard after Iraq with General Schwarzkopf in command and won a stunning victory. He enjoyed approval ratings in the 90's and all was well. Until, that is, the moderate impulse kicked in and he aborted Schwarzkopf's charge after Saddam. Then he went wobbly on taxes and other domestic policy, and limped off into history's ash heap with only 38 per cent of the vote in his last election. That too, was stunning.

Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. Bush 43 has no excuse not to know THIS history. Even in this war, our success did not start until the beginning of November when we really unleashed the military to go hard. That reaped results in less than two weeks.

Soon, the President will have to learn that like it or not, he IS the commander in chief of one of the two battling elements in Washington. He may want a new tone, but he will not get it by trying to get along. In politics, as in war, your enemies only respect you when you whip'em. Our founding fathers knew this. To put it bluntly, "bi-partisanship" is not only foolish political strategy, it is counter-constitutional.

The President cannot stay above the fray on issues like the airline security bill or the economic stimulus package...or even races like Brett Schundler's in New Jersey. He could inject a lot of energy into these issues with the same straight forward common sense approach as to "what and why" that played so well with the world in September. At 90% approval, he has a rare chance indeed to do so.

And if he does not, and faces re-election in a nation with more liberal governors and members of congress than he has now, he will follow his father into the big tent...the ever increasing tent of defeated Republican moderates.