<snip>
In the last blast of summer, with the heat of the political high season still ahead, George W. Bush stands an actual chance of getting re-elected. This fact, like other oddities of American life -- Fox News, say, or Paris Hilton -- is very hard to explain.
Next week the Republicans will gather in New York to laud the President's policies, and his family values, and his steadfastness in the war on terror, as if he were riding into the convention on a wave of success. Even Democrats, replying from the sidelines, will be mostly respectful, careful not to offend squeamish fence-sitters in a country that's jittery enough as it is. Which is why Bush craves the Manhattan backdrop: to remind Americans of the bold commander-in-chief who grabbed the bullhorn at Ground Zero, back when a shaken nation rallied 'round him and before his own boneheaded hubris blew it all to hell.
And blown it he has -- "big time," to borrow Dick Cheney's phrase. Huge time, like few before him.
<snip>
Little wonder that, last spring, 80 per cent of respondents to an informal survey of historians rated Bush's presidency an overall failure. Yes, historians tend to be liberal, and maybe it's too early to pass judgment. But their indictments -- on integrity, foreign relations, fiscal policies, civil liberties, health care, the environment -- are striking nonetheless. Bush, said one, "is by far the most irresponsible, unethical, inexcusable occupant of our formerly highest office in the land that there has ever been."
<snip>
It's time for Democrats to play rough too. Make clear their opponent can't be trusted, that he sent Americans off to fight and die on a lie and has been flailing for rationales ever since; you want to talk flip-flops, you could break your back doing Bush's Iraq contortions. Drive home that his Saddam obsession motivated a new generation of terrorists, while letting many of the real 9/11 bad guys get away -- that he's made America less secure, not more. As for the slams on Kerry's record, an occasional reminder of Bush's past -- AWOL National Guardsman, failed oilman bailed out by daddy's rich friends -- wouldn't hurt.
A lot can happen between now and November. If terrorists were to strike on U.S. soil, would people rally 'round the Prez again -- or turn on him for not keeping them safe? Hard to say. But unknowns aside, my money's on Kerry: as in the recent Canadian election, the polls may be tight till the end but the vote, I think, will be more decisive. Friends in the States -- Canada is my home but not my native land -- offer encouraging reports of Republicans who backed Bush in 2000 now saying, no, sorry, not this time. Nice to hear. Nice to feel a cockeyed faith in America's collective wisdom, and in the simple justice of the workplace.
He's done a lousy job. Fire him.
Macleans (Canada)
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