Bush Labors to Change Election's Focus From Unpopular War and Lost Jobs to

[hang a left]

Bush Labors to Change Election's Focus From Unpopular War and Lost Jobs to His Leadership
09-02-2004 7:54 PM
By RON FOURNIER, AP Political Writer

NEW YORK -- An unpopular war and 1.1 million lost jobs is enough to kill a presidency, so President Bush tried Thursday night to make the election about something else: himself and his leadership style.

"Even when we don't agree," he told an anxious and divided nation, "you know what I believe and where I stand."

He sought to make a virtue of his differences with half or more of the electorate, and cast Democratic rival John Kerry as a pandering, indecisive liberal unfit for wartime leadership.

"One thing I have learned about the presidency is that whatever shortcomings you have, people are going to notice them," the president said, "and whatever strengths you have, you're going to need them."

http://sandiego.cox.net/cci/newsnational/national?_mode=view&_state=maximized&view=article&id=D84RTPQ00

[Dover]

1. Wow, they really ARE desperate! That confirms it.

His lack of "leadership" is what led to the unpopular war and loss of jobs. Actually Dubya drove the getaway car for a whole ban of thieves and murderers.

[Born Free]

9. "Character" is the issue

Under All the smear campaigns from the bush team liars is the underlying issue the right wing is using this election, just as in 2000, they are trying to make their coward look like some wonderful, a brave soul desperately fighting against the evildoers of the world. They have the bush coward hiding behind the personal character attacks against Kerry. Democrats can not let this continue without fighting back, they tried it in 2000, they thought the truth would prevail but in the end the politically ignorant in America bought into the myths.
Like it or not the swift boat liars have forced Democrats to either accept defeat or fight back and the only way to fight back is to force the coward bush out from hiding, he must be forced to stand up and show the American people the pathetic, pampered brat he was and the stubborn , narrow minded coward he is today hiding behind the worlds most powerful military and destroying the future for Americans with his goal to bankrupt the government.

[CarolynEC]

2. Okay, national security and the economy are off the table, so...

... leadership on what? Leadership doesn't exist is a vacuum, Georgie. Without real results, leadership "style" is just empty posturing.

But that's the fact no one is supposed to mention, right? George W. Bush has accomplished nothing. He has strutted around and talked a lot of talk, but he has accomplished nothing. His is a failed administration, in every sense and on every level.

And now he's going to try to sell me on his "style"? Style don't pay the rent, George. Your "style" never did anything but raise the terror alert level, George. Your "style" didn't impress when you got all dolled up in your little pilot costume and declared 'mission accomplished,' and it's sure not enough to disguise the many ways in which you've dragged our nation down into the gutter in just under four years.

SHut up, George. Take your "style" and stuff it.

[krkaufman]

6. Exactly. It's all just "woooords"

Here's the middle segment from last night's 'The Daily Show'. It skewers Bush's 3 1/2 years of posturing.

http://home.comcast.net/~krkaufman/Because_He_Says_So.wmv
Windows Media format; 5.2MB, 4 1/2 minutes

Right-click, and "Save as...", and prepare to smile.

[mom cat]

7. Thanks for the big smile. It was the cherry on top.

:evilgrin::bounce::bounce::toast::bounce::bounce::evilgrin:

[hang a left]

10. Because....he says so.

Love it. LOL.

[Catfight]

12. Fucking awesome!

[Bandit]

13. As President Carter said "It isn't Leadership if no one follows"

We have never been so shunned as a nation and it isn't Kerry's fault.

[despairing optimist]

3. "We may not agree," said the cat to the mouse,

"but at least you know where I stand."

Sounds like a line from The Passion of the Christ.

[calimary]

16. All the more reason to vote AGAINST you, schmucko.

It was a HUGE mistake for him to resurrect the "compassionate conservative" phrase. Nobody advised him not to mention this? They're so careful to avoid all those other unmentionables, like the jobs that aren't, the war that's a lox, and some guy named Osama - who's now being referred to as "UBL." Ron Silver even did that the other night on a panel with Scarborough and Ron Reagan. Even he's drunk all the Kool-Aid.

[short bus president]

20. "even" Ron Silver?

That little weasel-dicked monkey-fucker's been up shrubya's colon from the start. He's an embarrassment to hebrew-kind.

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. "Leadership" is usually recognized as a trait AFTER

a person is successful at what they did. He wants to claim the prize without having done anything worthy of the honor.

[truthisfreedom]

5. bush's shortcomings are many, and his strengths are few. is sociopathic

behavior a strength?

[Dem2theMax]

8. Apparently it is - to sheeple.

:puke:

[jmowreader]

17. Only if everyone else is more sociopathic than you

In reality, Bush has no strengths whatsoever, at least none that matter in a presidential context.

"Clears brush." Great. Prison inmates clear brush too, and probably better than Dubya.

"Rides bike well." Super. Hey Lance! We don't need yer ball-cancer-addled ass no mo, we got the Amazing Bushler to take your place. And he even has a shiny new bike!

"Got the all-time high score on Grand Theft Auto III." Well, this is impressive, but sadly it's not quite enough.

"Ultra-low body mass index." Once again, neat if we're talking about a world-class athlete. Which he has apparently turned himself into in the process of trading one addiction (or is that two?) for another.

"Great taste in neckwear." This I will give him. He has great ties. He has really nice suits that would be even nicer if they fit him. This qualifies him to be a haberdasher.

George Bush is a dry drunk who needs to be working at a different job. He'd probably make a halfway decent assistant manager at a men's clothing store somewhere, given enough training and plenty of mentoring.

[Catfight]

11. His leadership is responsible for unemployment and unpopular wars. n/t

[PATRICK]

14. Their plan already failed

The script(and this heavily shows and implies Bush responsibility for SBVFT) was to undercut Kerry on the leadership theme and overwhelm them as had been the plan for years with "9/11 Leadership" to gloss over 9-5 daily incompetence. The money, the Bush slime scheme, the prone, stone-headed DNC strategists were all Rove givens and the script could not be changed. They had to bull through, but it has all gone lame, with several new negativities accumulated under pressure, backfires. An irreversible bluff that will be called.

Kerry saw this coming when he planned his Convention to counter this exact, telegraphed strategy. If he had downplayed his war record he would have been even more vulnerable. As much as some of us would have liked to see the GOP reactor melt down completely, overall it has been a victory for us. The inexplicable and even stupid appearance of some of their Convention stratagem's shows a GOP plan with its pants down around the knees. Contained, failed, and crumbling.

Deficits do matter, Mr. Cheney. The bill comes due in November.

Rose Garden, money, surprises, media spin. The debate(I just shake my head here). Try to do no harm(Bush and Cheney couldn't even manage that in leading up to the Convention!).

Well, be prepared for incredibly outrageous efforts by Bush and Rove, but in the "real world" Bush has no where to go but down.

[dbt]

15. Dear Mr. pResident:

We could always tell what Hitler believed and where he stood, too.

:freak:
dbt

[jmowreader]

18. Bush's problem is that we really don't know these things

I used to watch fishing shows, and every once in a while they'd get out their 50-foot Hatteras and go out in the Gulf Stream in search of man-eating sharks.

When they caught one, they'd drop the thing into the cockpit of the boat until they could get it unhooked and thrown back in the ocean. I recall that pissed-off, writhing 600-pound creature attempting to bite its way through the side and think, "that's Bush--a dangerous flip-flopper."

The similarity between Bush and that shark are astounding.

Both are dangerous, even lethal.
Both have the emotional level of a four-year-old child.
Both flop around in the back of the boat and no one dare approach them while it's happening.
Both know they're cornered.

The analogy falls apart eventually: when you put the shark back in the water, he will swim off and leave you the hell alone. Bush isn't going to do that; when defeated in November, he will do his damndest to leave Kerry a little welcoming gift, like a freshly-nuked Pyongyang or a just-launched invasion of Iran.

[democrat_patriot]

19. "Friday we need some sanity" kick.

Thanks!

[BrotherBuzz]

21. Bush, you run with that leadership crap

and I'll focus on the unpopular war, lost jobs, lack of affordable healthcare, the economy 'stupid', the environment....I could go on, but I'd be late for my third job I was forced to take in order to put 'food on my family'. Deal?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

22. If economy and foreign policy suck...

What's left to have "leadership" about?

Public services? Hmmm, no, strike that.