Dubya Who?

The issue of Newsweek magazine that hits the newsstands tomorrow has an interesting piece on the current state of the Republican party. It was written by Richard Wolffe and Holly Bailey:

"Fearful of defeat in November, GOP candidates are uncertain how to pull themselves together in the eight months left before the elections. The toughest question: whether to run, as they have in the past, as W Republicans, or to airbrush the president out of their campaigns. "What I've tried to tell people is that a political tsunami is gathering, and if we don't do something to stop it, we'll be in the minority a year from now," says Rep. Ray LaHood from Illinois. "But some people still don't get it.""

The fact is that this has become a toxic presidency -- and the Republicans running for office this year are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

Again from Newsweek:

"In strategy memos circulated on the Hill, Republican National Committee pollsters argue that disunity will only discourage the base from turning out to vote. But even the party's analysts concede that standing shoulder to shoulder with Bush may not always be the best way to win. In one RNC memo, pollster Dave Sackett argues that incumbents need to demonstrate their "independence" and disagreements with party leaders, but still present "an overall unified front.""

In other words:

Support the president... except when you don't.

Stand close to the leader of the free world... but not too close.

Bush has become the equivalent of the mistress you don't want to be seen in public with.

Again from Newsweek:

"Some candidates are happy to stand beside Bush, as long as nobody actually sees them together. Locked in a tight race for re-election, Sen. Mike DeWine chose not to accompany Bush on one trip to his home state of Ohio last month. A week later he attended a private fund-raiser with the president in Cincinnati—out of sight of photographers and reporters."

They're smart not to want to be seen with him. This is from a Matthew Cooper piece on Time magazine's website. The Pew Research Center has done polls on words associated with presidents:

"Three years ago, positive descriptions of Bush far outnumbered negative ones. In the past two years, the positive-negative ratio has been more nearly equal. This time, 48% of those polled used a negative word to describe Bush; just 28% picked a positive term; 10% chose neutral language. Six respondents chose a word that everyone could agree on: "President.""

Again from Time:

"Until this month, the word most associated with President Bush had always been "honest." Now the leading answer is "incompetent" (given by 29 people), followed by "good," "idiot" and "liar." "Honest" has slipped to 5th, tied with "Christian.""

Frankly, I'm surprised "asshole" wasn't a lot higher up on the list.

Tom Moran