GOP to play Bush's likability card

[RedEarth]

GOP to play Bush's likability card

Speakers will tout his man-of-the-people style, but critics say his policies belie the image.

By Liz Marlantes | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

NEW YORK – In presidential politics, it's axiomatic that sitting presidents go into their conventions as known commodities. While challengers can introduce themselves to voters, incumbents are already defined in the eyes of the public, and have to defend their records.

Yet this week, Republicans are attempting in various ways to tweak President Bush's image. They're not trying to redefine him, they say, but to "reacquaint" voters with aspects of his personality and governing style that they believe have been somewhat obscured by the official trappings of the presidency.



In part, it's an attempt to revive a more genial, softer side of the president and his party - one that may appeal more to moderates and independents - by reminding voters of the candidate who ran in 2000 as a "compassionate conservative." It's also an attempt to capitalize on Bush's "likability" advantage in polls over Sen. John Kerry.

"The president is not just a great president - he's a good guy," said GOP chairman Ed Gillespie at a Monitor breakfast. The convention will not only showcase Bush's strength as a leader, but as a loving father, dedicated husband, and "someone who likes baseball," Mr. Gillespie says.

Bush's strongest attributes have always been "his ability to empathize," agrees Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot. "He's always exuded humility, and an ability to work with other people." Although voters came to know this side of Bush in 2000, Mr. Racicot says, since then "I don't think there's been the same opportunity for him to be engaged" with voters.



heck, I think I'd like to drink a beer with george....shoot the shit, talk a little ball..

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0831/p01s01-uspo.html

[truthisfreedom]

1. he's got a false, grimacing smirk. he's a fake Texan, a transplant from

the East. he's intellectually challenged. he's a repeat business failure and went awol from his duties in the national guard. he's announced (years ago) that he could never be a presidential candidate, and he just announced yesterday that you "can't win the war on terror." he's a white-knuckle dry drunk. he's a self-righteous nincompoop with the inability to separate church from state in his own mind...

what's not to like? such a winning personality... i wish i had one just like it!




not.

[Ron Green]

25. Rant = 9.7 n/t

[Jo March]

2. I've heard so many people say how likeable he is

It's funny but people said the same thing about Hitler - how charming and charasmatic Hitler was.

Can't these people look past the likeable image (which is all that it is) and see this man as the evil monster he really is? He could give a rat's ass about the common folk. I doubt that he really likes anyone he meets.

[Dulcinea]

27. Exactly what is so likeable about Boy George?

He might as well wear a sign that says "No-Talent Chump."

[Javaman]

33. Image is all the repukes have to hold on to...

Look the emperor is naked!!!

Just goes to show you, even morons can be appointed prez these days.

[yardwork]

38. People said the same thing about Ted Bundy, too

Apparently right up until he tortured and murdered them.

[struggle4progress]

41. Kerry might ultimately turn out to be more likeable:

Posted on Fri, Aug. 13, 2004
Kerry wraps up national tour as Bush prepares for prime-time shot
BY DAVID JACKSON
The Dallas Morning News

... Kerry has not built a huge lead since the convention, but aides attributed that to the small number of undecided voters available to sway. They instead pointed to the "internals," or detailed, secondary questions of many polls, in which voters gave higher marks to Kerry for likeability, optimism, and his ability to handle terrorism ...

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/special_packages/election2004/9396413.htm

[tanyev]

3. What "likability card"?

It's missing from my deck. There are a lot of extra jokers, though.

[grytpype]

4. I would likeable for Duhbya to go to Hell.

That is what I would likeable.

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. He isn't likable at all

He behaves as if he were perpetually at a tailgate party before a baseball game, full of wise cracks and shit. This kind of used car salesman behavior is obnoxious, boring and not at all likable.

[RT Atlanta]

6. Keg Stands...

That's the way to win middle America and the deep South where I live. What a fucking tool!

[Not Me]

7. Likeable???!! He's a fraud.

n/t

[asjr]

8. If he has not been "engaged" for 4 years, four more will not do it.

[HuckleB]

9. Yeah, he's likeable all right. If you like sleazy, used car salesmen,

that is. This guy has fake written all over him, every time he walks out the door. You've got to be a dufus to fall for it. So much of a dufus that you don't know what likeable even means.

[mumon]

10. I got 500,000 people on the streets of NY

that don't like him.

How many have they got? 2000 hand picked delgates?

Give me a break.

[CBHagman]

11. Fake friendliness rides again.

Remember his visit to Oprah to prove what a good listener he was? He leaned forward eagerly as she spoke, but his posture revealed aggression.

Please tell me no one buys the silly notion that this ruthless, selfish, vindictive being can be passed off as Mr. Nice Guy. He can coo about faith and lovin' your children with all your heart and your soul (and we know how effective THAT was in making his children good citizens), but it's a crock.

[gratuitous]

12. Well, they sure can't play the competency card

Or the leadership card.

Or the economy card.

Or the jobs card.

Or the budget card.

About the only card they can play anymore is the Andrew Card. And that one's gotten pretty dog-eared.

[TahitiNut]

13. That's just because they can't find an honest deck.

Somebody misspelled 'lickability.'

[Don Claybrook]

14. by definition, sociopaths cannot show empathy

Just wanted to point that out.

[Disturbed]

15. Sociapaths are charming.

Ted Bundy was real charming.

[TEXASYANKEE]

16. Shouldn't Repubs call that ...

Doing a makeover? Doesn't he know who he is? Isn't he comfortable in his own skin?

Yeah, Bush is so likeable. The rest of the world just LOOOOOOVES Bush.

[ixion]

17. as likeable a root canal

geez. It's no wonder I don't get along with so many rethugs. This is their idea of likeable? :crazy: :eyes:

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

18. What's that picture? Looks as if he's about to club a baby seal.

Get him to tell you about the death row inmate wanting a pardon from the Gov. It's a real hoot.

[RedEarth]

22. lol...club a baby seal....lol.....seal or freedom hater

[Inland]

19. Likeable in the sense he hates the same people you do....

Share a beer and complain about libruls, sneer at fags, and try to oneup on how YOU would handle those ragheads. Its sort of like saying that its the beer for people who hate beer? Bush is the candidate for voters who hate other people.

[Betty]

I have never understood what people see in him...

he seems like a major league asshole to me and he doesn't hide it at all. Mean spirited little shit.

[DoYouEverWonder]

20. When I look at W

all I see is someone who hates me and everyone else in the world.

He is such a phony. If he wasn't pResident, nobody would like him.

[JerseygirlCT]

21. He's every over-allowanced, under-achieving, obnoxious frat boy -m

I ever ran into in college. Couldn't stand the type then, can't stand them now.

Likable??? Ick.

[progressivebydesign]

23. As a seasoned journalist said.. after spending time with Bush and Gore..

Gore is not as intelligent as people think, but he's much nicer than they think. Bush is not as dumb as people think, but he's much less nice than they think.

I'm obviously paraphrasing.. but this came from his campaign trail observations, last time around. He thought that Bush came off so likable, and was not really a nice person. Gore was faulted for being a brain, yet unlikable, but the reporter found him to be a very personable guy.

Kerry is getting the same treatment, yet he's supposed to be a very nice, warm, funny man. Fucking Rove. I hate that asshole.

[yardwork]

39. Projection

Rove projects Chimpy's weaknesses onto his opponents.

Chimp-boy is cold, calculating, humorless, without a soul = Rove portrayed Gore that way.

Chimp-boy is a draft-dodging coward who altered and disappeared his records = Rove gets smear vets to portray Kerry that way.

Chimp-boy is unstable and unpredictable = Rove portrayed McCain that way.

And on and on. It makes me sick that people fall for this shit.

[Emboldened Chimp]

24. What's likeable about a swaggering, belligerent asshole?

[Ron Green]

26. I must say that the quality of all these rants

is something you'd never find over at Freepville. Can you imagine this kind of pithy, acerbic ass-kicking of Kerry? Those bozos just can't hang, when it comes to scorn and derision. ROFLMFAO!
:spank:

[The Night Owl]

28. Likable people do not inspire over 200,000 people to march against them!

Bush's alleged likability- Major Republican myth.

:mad:

[Mechatanketra]

29. Marc Racicot needs to learn to speak English.

Bush "always exuded humility"? Is that the word you use for someone who tells reporters he just can't think of a mistake he's ever made in office?

I mean, come f***ing ON! It's bad enough they have to lie non-stop about his supposed accomplishments in office -- he has to go for the extra point slap in the face of "and modest, too!"

[hyphenate]

30. Please ignore those men

behind the curtain pulling the dummy's strings!!!!

This is so much bullshit. If the country doesn't know any better by now, they never will. And I better get my plans firmed up for the move to Canada.

[are_we_united_yet]

31. They'd better play all 52 of them

[foo_bar]

32. let me be the first to make a homophobic remark

there.

[NRaleighLiberal]

34. The Joker? He is dealing with an incomplete deck!!!

[young_at_heart]

35. How many Americans think this man is a "good guy"?

This is Ed Gillespie spin....all those marchers sure don't think he's a good guy!

[Just Me]

36. I cannot help myself,...I have more belief in the American people,...

,...than the psyoptically-controlling administration that takes them for granted.

I cannot help myself,...but to have "real" faith in the power granted upon us all.

[leesa]

37. I don't think that guy behind him likes him.

[pinniped]

40. And I hear John Wayne Gacy was liekable as a clown too.

Go to hell *!

[DemoTex]

42. I hate the MoFo.

But after the NBC interview tonight (Tom Brokaw), I just might hate his Poppy more (what a sick, sick revisionist!). I can't even look at his mommer.

One man's opinion. Mine.

[porkrind]

43. They are emphasizing the velvet glove

over the plutocratic mailed fist of fascism that is holding America under the water. Why do they hate America?

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

44. Humility? Humility? BUSH EXUDES HUMILITY?????

He's the most smirking, arrogant, cocky little son of a bitch I've ever seen in politics, except maybe for Tom Delay. What they're actually playing is the mediocre card. Bush is a mediocre little bully with the manners of a goat with whom millions of brain-dead hillbillies or devolved hillbillies identify.