A Week That Could Bolster Bush

[DaveSZ]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bushreagan8jun08,1,1374360.story?coll=la-home-headlines


FAREWELL TO A PRESIDENT
A Week That Could Bolster Bush
Unofficially, GOP insiders hope nostalgia for Reagan will reap political dividends.


By Doyle McManus, Times Staff Writer


WASHINGTON — Can Ronald Reagan's political magic work in one last election — this time for President Bush?

Republican strategists acknowledged Monday that they hope the nation's week of mourning for Reagan, who died Saturday, will turn into a boost for Bush's reelection campaign.


Officially, GOP leaders said it would be unseemly to talk about the political impact of Reagan's death. "We just want to make sure that Ronald Reagan's legacy is honored," Republican Party national chairman Ed Gillespie said.

But unofficially, several Republican strategists said the nation's outpouring of nostalgia and respect for Reagan may have offered Bush an opportunity to improve his flagging popularity — if he can find a way to don the mantle of his well-loved predecessor.

-more

[Don_G]

1. No 'Effin Way

He and Rove are much more skilled at using hate to get what they want. The finer emotions like trust, loyalty and respect are alien concepts.

If they try, which I hope they do, they'll mangle their campaign beyond repair.

[Pachamama]

2. A week that will bolster Reagan in history - if Bush Co. try to start...

...making comparisons to Reagan and saying Shrub is like him, well they risk two things:

1) Destroying Reagan's name (and you don't want to do that to the Gipper and Nancy ain't going let that happen)

2) Destroying Bush's support amongst "Reagan Republicans" and "Reagan Democrat's" because it can very easily be shown that he (*) is nothing and nothing like Reagan....in fact, I think they are so different, we should here on the DU start a list and ship it to the Kerry campaign as talking points...

[izzie]

3. I think this will help Bush.

The GOP will also use it. Would the Dem? Yar. To keep power is a big thing with a lot of people.

[dbt]

4. Let the comparisons begin!

Let the Pugs see how far their party has fallen from the GodReagan to the chimp that squats in the Oval Office. A LOT of Creationists face the risk of believing in DEvolution when they compare bu$h to Reagan.

BRING 'EM ON!

:evilgrin:
dbt

[teryang]

5. Nostalgia for Reagan?

LOL.

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. On the other hand

Considering W's flop of a trip to Europe, he's not in good shape heading into the G8 meetings. The poor boy is going to be all tired and cranking and under a lot of pressure, because now he has to play host. Add that to having to prep for Reagan's eulogy, and Dim Son should be ready for the final meltdown. I just hope he does it live on all the networks.

[Eurobabe]

7. Not a chance

Reagan had more class in his little fingernail, and knew how to work with others. Watching the news, the differences are stark and apparent.

I reserve vitriol for the illegal squatter, when Bush43 is gone I WILL give thanks for a month of Sundays!

[dusty64]

8. Oh please.

:puke: This is SUCH a pantload. st. reagan may as well have been dead for the last ten years. Many voters do not have a memory of him and many more do and it ain't positive. This is the idea the rightwing is desperately pushing cause they have NOTHING else. The funeral of an ex-President is going to have NO impact whatsoever on the election campaign and may even be a negative for chimp. There is a VERY real chance he may blow his eulogy, he seems to have more than one foot in the abyss of total insanity these days.

[sendero]

9. Forget the policies...

... just remember the times. For most Americans, the 80s were pretty good. Things like Grenada did not cost a lot of American lives. There was a recession at first, but printing money for defense items needed or not fixed that.

When you contrast the overall tenor of the 80s with now, its hard to come out ahead now IMHO.

[saracat]

28. For most Americans, the 80's were NOT good times.

Read the posts of all the people who lost all their benefits and even had relatives die as the resultof RR cuts in social programs. The network mailbags have been overwhelmingly negative about the Reagan coverage. I have never forgotten GHWBush commnt , in regard to the Reagan recession " there are no homeless"(as they poured in to the streets), and "everyone I know has a job". Those comments and the reagan/Bush Agenda are what turned me partisan. I used to vote the "man not the ticket".Now I have a friend running as a Republican, and I won't vote for him. I'm sorry . but he should know better!

[MarianJack]

10. A Week that could bolster *...

...briefly! He's still the same dunce as always and the public is starting to see it.

By the way, loyal r or not, given the way the reagans and bushes REALLY feel about each other, it wouldn't surprise me to see Nancy take 1 last chance to (subtly) f*** the bushes with something like a very pro stem cell research statement. I also think that she will get VERY pissed when, not if, the rethuglicans try to use her husband's death for their political gain. Conservative or not, Nancy has made NO bones about the fact that she considers her first duty to be to care for her husband's legacy.

I also think that the bushes know that the rethuglicans as a whole genuinely LOVE the reagans the way that Democrats love the Kennedys. They know that they are pretenders to the throne and that Nancy is NOBODY to screw around with.

[koopie57]

14. I think that briefly is key here

cuz if bush is loosing his mind (which is ironic cuz you have to have something to loose it) and hates reagan and hates not being the center of attention ... he will do something stupid. And I don't think Nancy will say much this week, but in a few months when she is interviewed on larry king or 60 minutes, I bet she will not hold back. I never cared for her or her husband, but I gotta admit, I admire her total love and devotion to the man. That is a very unique thing to see and like her or not, I have to give her credit there.

[Devil Dog Dem]

11. They'd better hope Reagan dies again at the end of October then.

Otherwise, any short term bounce that Bush gets (and I doubt he gets much of onw) won't due him any good come election day.

[devinsgram]

12. This will do nothing for *

You have to remember,the attention span of Americans is very short. In a month it will be "Ronald who?"

[madmax]

13. I hope Nancy reads this

I'm sure she will appreciate GOP leaders using her husband's death to promote bush for election purposes.

[maddogesq]

20. Good point. And here’s something else to consider.

Nancy and the family have said they will now do a lot of stumping in favor of stem cell research. Imagine if you will that she could possibly team up with, say, Christopher Reeve on this issue. Boy, wouldn’t that make the Religious Wrong who support Jr. Shambles squirm, especially if it is revealed that Ronnie was in a vegetative state for the last years of his life.

Fireworks are coming...mark my word on that.

[madmax]

22. Nancy could do so much

I hope she has the strength and time to put her formidable powers to do good.

Re: Chris Reeve he would be excellent and so would Michael J. Fox.

I saw her recently at some affair where MJF was present and they seemed to get along really well. MJF like Reagan is a victim of a disease, and he's so young - married and a Dad. Hope it tugs at Nancy's heartstrings.

Her support means the difference between life and death for some people. Whereas, the election is just about power and crony capitalism.

Wes Clark said, 'when you can do good, you should'. C'mon Nancy - do it for the Gipper!

[Snellius]

15. Once trust is lost, it is never regained.

He'll probably pick up points for the U.N. vote today. and the job numbers last week. Trouble is Bush is already permanently damaged goods. Even if he should win, he can never restore any respect.

[Beetwasher]

16. Ghouls! We LOVE IT When People Die!!!

It's good for us politically, because we can shamelessly exploit it, while slamming Dems for Wellstone.

Bush is going to flay Reagan and don his skin for the next six months a la Buffalo Bob, or maybe just have him stuffed and lug him around on the campaign trail a la Weekend at Bernies.

[Philostopher]

18. All the while grunting and flinging poo at the press.

I dunno -- some of the 'traditional' conservatives had started criticizing Boosh* recently, and King Ron is the figurehead of their Cheap-Labor-Republican religion. I wonder how long people like George Will and some of the other reich-wing pundits and columnists who'd started criticizing the Dim Son in recent weeks/months will react to his dancing around the fire in their idol/savior's skin?

Remains to be seen.

[TahitiNut]

19. Archbishit Bush would have 'communion' using Reagan's corpse ...

... if it'd serve his narrow personal interests. This is partisan necrophilia.

[The Stranger]

17. The ideological antecedent to the Neocon administration is Reagan.

While they deify and beatify their version of Chairman Mao, the Kerry campaign voluntarily goes silent . . .

[Ilsa]

21. I've chatted with people on on another board

that are too young to remember the sordid details of RR's presidency, and too young to understand the lies being told in politics today. They could barely remember RR, but were all misty-eyed over this latest turn of events because it reminded them of when they were carefree young happy kids with no responsibilities. Unfortunately, I htink some of that nostalgia could work to *'s advantage if he plays it right. Hopefully, those people will be thinking more about the negatives right now and hold it against DimSon.

[ewagner]

23. If I was advising Bush*

I'd recommend this:

Play it totally straight at Reagan's funeral. Don't make any comparisons; heap praise and honor on Ronny and especially Nancy; build up the "Reagan Mystic" as much as you can.

At the convention. Get a nostalgic "Reagan Retrospective" going, then promise that Bush* will be a faithful steward of the the Regan Legacy. Make the Reagan Legacy part of the campaign rhetoric. Hit it hard. Hit it often.

Facts are irrelevant. Truth is irrelevant. It's just the image that counts. Play the image for all it's worth.

[SoDesuKa]

24. They're Doing That

They're trying not to overplay their hand here. Don't grab too much!

But they are over the top anyhow. People who remember Reagan aren't taken in. Nostalgia for Reagan will be gone in a couple of days.

[leesa]

25. Doubtful

In fact, Ronnie's demise was a tad early. I suspect there might be a bit more truth coming out about the mass murderer now that he is gone.

[phoebe]

26. Mr. Bush is already inextricably linked to the Reagan "era" via

his father and the other "good ol' boys" in this administration.

The striking similarities between the policies of the 80's under Reagan and those of the current administration are all too obvious beginning with the circumstances under which Reagan was elected - backroom dealings over releasing hostages in order to influence the outcome of the US election.

The ugly truth about the Reagan era is already out despite the current efforts to re-write that history.

[calimary]

27. They WISH.

Howard Fineman was pounding hard on that, too.

I STILL think I'M correct. That, overall, the true believers will develop this gnawing feeling deep down - that the guy who's supposedly inherited Reagan's mantle is nothing more than a pretender to the throne. bush JUST DOES NOT MEASURE UP. WE need to keep pounding away at that. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR DISPUTING THIS certainly help, because the editorial people at these papers need to be made aware that lots of folks out there don't agree with this assessment.

Two other things working against that assessment, too.

ONE reversal, or one chunk of bad news from the "front" and everything goes south again.

AND - I suspect there will be more than a few people who are just burned out by the Reagan orgy by the end of the week. YES, people still worship him (go figure!), nevertheless that was still SO 20 years ago. They'll be sick of it. They'll want their regular shows back, if any of them are preempted. They'll get bored and want to move on. Or Michael Jackson or the Laci Peterson trial will get everybody slobberingly dirty again.

The track record here is significant: EVERY photo op the bushies have tried to create and then milk the stuffings out of - has turned to shit. Witness the aircraft carrier "Mission Accomplished" fiasco. Witness the plastic turkey platter in Baghdad. Witness any of his trips overseas, including this latest one, that produced nothing but adverse headlines. I'm not gonna lose much sleep over this.

But WE have to do our part, too. Besides, the Plame Game is probably going to rev back up, soon.

[Fovea]

29. "A week where Bush tries to

associate himself with Reagan, to the detriment of both."

That's my headline. Bush is not well beloved of the Reagans. I think he has to keep his distance, or they will bitch slap him. Despite her years, and the freshness of her loss, I believe that somewhere in Nancy, the ability to bitchslap remains.

[Terran]

30. Heheh, I think NOT, thanks to Mr. Ashcroft!

I swear, these sick pups can't go a day without screwing something up big time. Ashcroft's refusing to give to Congress the memo from DOJ claiming that Bush wouldn't be subject to Geneva Conv. over torture. Biden says he's in contempt of Congress!