[schrocat]

Oh my...

"If Bush were running today against Bill Clinton, I'd vote for Clinton," Bartlett served. :slap:

...said Sullivan. "He's a socialist in so many respects, a Christian socialist."
Bartlett argued that Richard Nixon "is the model for everything Bush is doing."

Hmmm...that one sounds dang familiar.

Sullivan said Karl Rove's political strategy is "pathetic."
Bartlett said that "the administration lies about budget numbers."
"He is not a responsible human being; he is a phenomenally reckless human being," Sullivan proclaimed. "There is a level of recklessness involved that is beyond any ideology."

Sulli-who? Bartlett-huh? Who are these ultra liberal hacks anyway?

I just can't watch anymore...

[Ninong]

The Republicans are running as fast as they can from the sinking ship. They're all searching their files to destroy any photos of themselves with Bush. George who? Never met him.

As far as Sullivan is concerned, he's messed up. He should never have aligned himself with the Republican Party in the first place. If he wants to be a conservative, fine, but don't go around associating yourself with the Republican Party and pretending to be a Republican. That would be like a Jew claiming that with a few improvements the National Socialist Party would be great. At least Sullivan didn't vote for Bush in 2004 (he voted for Kerry) but he did vote for him in 2000. If he has issues with the Democrats, then he should call himself an Independent. For him to call himself a Republican is absurd.

[Ninong]

Days Without Hunting Accident: 25

Days Since Bush Declared "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq: 1,042

[Steven Pro]

Bush's low approval numbers have certainly hurt him in his political capital. I mean, he couldn't get two conservative jurists successfully confirmed to the Supreme Court, or all of his federal appeals and circuit judges, or get the Patriot Act renewed mostly untouched/unchanged. Oh, wait a minute.

[schrocat]

Originally Posted by Steven Pro

Bush's low approval numbers have certainly hurt him in his political capital. I mean, he couldn't get two conservative jurists successfully confirmed to the Supreme Court, or all of his federal appeals and circuit judges, or get the Patriot Act renewed mostly untouched/unchanged. Oh, wait a minute.

Have you set a benchmark for taking the W sticker off the car?
Like...20%?

...and for the record.
The "capital" statement was made by Bush just prior to his Social Security "capital expenditure".

Q Thank you, Mr. President. Just to follow up on Ed's question, we like to remind you that you came to Washington hoping to change the tone, and yet, here we are, three months into your second term and you seem deadlocked with Democrats on issues like Bolton, DeLay, judges. Is there any danger that the atmosphere is becoming so poisoned, or that you're spending so much political capital that it could imperil your agenda items like Social Security, energy?

THE PRESIDENT: I don't think so well, Bill.

You forgot Harriet...how rude.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Steven Pro

Bush's low approval numbers have certainly hurt him in his political capital. I mean, he couldn't get two conservative jurists successfully confirmed to the Supreme Court, or all of his federal appeals and circuit judges, or get the Patriot Act renewed mostly untouched/unchanged. Oh, wait a minute.

A president doesn't actually spend any of his 'political capital' when the Congress does what it is inclined to do in the first place. Political capital comes into play when the President persuades the Congress to do something that he wants that they might otherwise have not done or not done exactly that way. An obvious example would be a Republican president who was elected, or reelected, with a substantial majority (more than 51%) who is working with a Democrat-controlled Congress.

It's possible that a Republican president might have to expend some of his political capital to push certain measures through a Republican-controlled Congress if those measures were not warmly embraced by the rank and file members of his own Party. A good example of this would be the President's plan for Social Security reform. It's not something either political party is eager to tackle and there are many Republicans who do not embrace the idea of privatization of any part of Social Security. Another possible example might be the proposal to make ALL of the tax cuts permanent as presently written, including complete elimination of the estate tax after 2010. There are many in Congress, including several Republicans, who would prefer the Democrat proposal of raising the threshold for estate tax to say $5 million and also reducing the tax rates on amounts above that deductible instead of completely eliminating all estate tax. If the first $5 million is exempt, not many estates will be taxed. Even Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, the two wealthiest individuals in the country, have spoken out against the President's plan.

In order for the President to pass his vision of Social Security reform, he will have to expend political capital, if he has any remaining. In order for him to get the Congress to take up the issue of making all of his tax reductions permanent at this particular time, he may have to do some arm twisting. Instead of taking up these two issues, which the administration says are at the top of their agenda, the Senate Majority Leader intends to take up a Constitutional Amendment banning gay marriage. He will bring this up for a vote in May, just in time for the fall elections. It will be opposed by virtually all Democrats, some moderate Republicans and possibly a few true conservative Republicans (not neo-cons). There is no way in hell they can get the two-thirds majority in both the Senate and the House that they will need to move this to the states for ratification and they know that but it's something to throw to their base, the neo-/theo-cons who control the Republican Party, and it will make life more difficult in an election year for any member running in the Bible Belt.

I don't think you can say that the President had to expend any political capital to get John Roberts confirmed. On the other hand, getting Bernie Kerik confirmed as Secretary of Homeland Security might have reduced his political capital savings account balance. And getting the Senate Judiciary Committee to even consider Harriet Miers' nomination to the Supreme Court would have required more political capital than he had remaining.

In fact, the argument can be made that the President's political capital account is overdrawn at the moment. Otherwise he wouldn't have been humiliated so badly yesterday when the House Appropriations Committee voted to block the Dubai Ports World deal by a margin of 62-2. The ports provision was added to a must-pass measure funding the war in Iraq and providing new hurricane relief. If the President is true to his word, he will now veto that bill and rely on his vast reservoir of political capital to prevent Congress from overriding his very first veto.

That will be a good measure of his political capital, not whether he can get conservative justices confirmed by a Republican-controlled Senate.

[Ninong]

Looks like I'm not the only one who thinks the President has overdrawn his political capital account:

‘He has no political capital,’ GOP pollster says of Bush amid ports fallout


"He has no political capital," said Tony Fabrizio, a Republican pollster. "Slowly but surely it's been unraveling. There's been a direct correlation between the trajectory of his approval numbers and the -- I don't want to call it disloyalty -- the independence on the part of the Republicans in Congress."

Read the rest of the March 10th Washington Post article here.

[Ninong]

Latest numbers from the AP-Ipsos poll won't exactly make the President's day:

• 70% of Republicans think civil war will break out in Iraq.
• 70% of Americans think US is on wrong track
• 37% approve of his job performance
• 74% of Republicans approve his performance, down from 82% in February
• 36% approval rating on domestic affairs, down from 39% last month
• 43% approval on foreign policy and terrorism
• 40% approval on Iraq and economy
• 2/3 disapprove of Congress job performance

[romunov]

... but it boils down to "What are you going to do about it?".

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by romunov

... but it boils down to "What are you going to do about it?".

There is not much that can be done about it until the mid-term elections in November of this year and then the presidential election in November of 2008. We don't have a parliamentary system of government.

Impeachment is not a viable option, at least not yet.

[Poseidon]

Originally Posted by Ninong

Impeachment is not a viable option, at least not yet.

At this rate, I don't think it will take much longer. I am to admit that I voted for GW. It sure seems like everything he touched has gone SOUR! I especially like the comment he made to Jenny, (our governor) "I can't make your automakers profitable." I agree, he can't! He also can't seem to keep a good economy rolling, he can't seem to accomplish a clear sense of victory in Iraq. Heck he can't even get along with the CANADIANS! I have met Canadians so polite that you could kick them in the nuts and they APOLOGIZE for their nuts getting in the way of your foot! I mean COME ON!

Then there is that FENCE idea.... 2000 miles of chain link, ya that will work! NOT!

Here are 3 simple (in my mind) ideas that our President should do:

1) Establish a national healthcare systems that works! We are argueably the wealthiest country on EARTH and we can't find the money to take care of our own?

2) Cut off all foreign aid to EVERYONE! This should pay for #1, plus some.

3) Bring home ALL troops that are stationed abroad. Let's use them for something productive @ home, like building roads, homes for the poor, patrolling our borders for drug runners... Seems like it would be a LOT harder for the drugs to get into the country if naval BATTLE GROUPS were patroling OUR waters.

I know this sounds like I want to build concrete walls around the country, and ignore everyone else, and to some degree that is what I am saying, but lets take care of our own FIRST.

I am sure the folks in LA, MS and AL wouldn't mind the help of 100,000+ young army and marine troops putting their community back together.

[Ninong]

Pew Research poll released today (March 15, 2006) shows

Bush Approval Rating at 33%!




P.S. -- When Bush told Cheney about his 33% approval rating, the Veep replied, "What's your secret?"

[schrocat]

Lower? Lower?
How is that possible?

How can his unflinching effectiveness translate into such dismal ratings.

He needs to make a few more of those "Iran is supplying the terrorists with...you know, stuff " comments.
That should pick him right back up...like a helicopter on the White House lawn!!

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by schrocat

That should pick him right back up...like a helicopter on the White House lawn!!

The helicopter could take him to Andrews AFB and then he could take the big bird to his faux ranch in Texas.

[Ninong]

The latest NBC/WSJ poll has him at 37%, but that's a new low for that poll, too. They report that only 26% of the American people think the country is "headed in the right direction."

Share a few quality moments with the president's nephew. Seems Neil's kid wrote a letter to the Houston Chronicle defending Uncle George's position on the Dubai Ports World deal. He thought it was a great idea. He didn't think much of having to get up early on a Saturday morning to chat with the Today Show's hosts. (P.S. -- He's named after grandma Barbara, whose maiden name is Pierce.)

[Ninong]

That Pew Research Poll that I linked above has an interesting section on which single word people offer as a description of President Bush. Just a year ago the single word most often chosen was "good," followed closely by "honest" and "trustworthy." Those words have dropped down on the list recently.

The single word most frequently associated with George W. Bush today is "incompetent,"and close behind are two other increasingly mentioned descriptors: "idiot" and "liar." All three are mentioned far more often today than a year ago.

[Ninong]

Schrocat opened this thread with numbers from the February CBS poll. It showed Bush's overall job approval rating at 34%. Some people pointed out that the February CBS poll included too many Democrats and not enough Republicans.

Here is the March CBS poll. Bush's approval rating is still 34%! You will find the number of Republicans, Democrats and Independents surveyed in this poll on page 20.

[schrocat]

So I guess his numbers do go down further if you add more Republicans.

I owe you a dollar.

:slap:

[schrocat]

Ninong...

Did you see Ms. Harris is sticking it out?
10 million of her own money...all her inheritence, right in the toilet.

Her petrified husband is worth 25.

I'll never, never forget her spokespersons quote... "It's her turn..."

That should be her campaign slogan.

Katherine Harris for Senate!
"It's her turn"

[Ninong]

I was afraid that when she said she would be making a major announcement this week that it would be an announcement of her withdrawal from the race. Thank goodness that didn't happen. When she says that she intends to sell all of her assets to fund her race, I wonder if that includes her vast collection of push-up bras and spandex tops?



It will be great fun to have both Katherine Harris and Ricky Santorum to laugh at from now till November. I still think they should campaign for each other. Double your pleasure, double your fun sort of stuff.

Oh, happy day!