The true lesson of George Bush

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Pandering to your base wins elections. Being strong in your beliefs wins elections. Refusing to admit even obvious errors wins elections.

Even if one believes Ohio was stolen, which may well be true, Bush still won in 2004 by a few million votes. He did so despite a war going horrificly wrong, a weak economy, and virtually no legislative accomplishments. He won despite being demolished in the debates by Kerry. He won despite being wrong on virtually every issue.

So why did he win? It wasn't the war. Despite the myth, wartime leaders in the US have a mixed record. Lincoln, FDR, and Nixon won while Truman and LBJ were so weakened they had to retire instead of running for the Democratic nomination. Truman left office with such low approval ratings that they were the lowest on record until Watergate. LBJ went from the largest share of popular vote in history to barely winning New Hampshire as an incumbent. Even FDR, who won, did so with his smallest majority of his four wins. Only Nixon won a landslide during war time and he did so against a divided Democratic party.

Bush won because for every person who hated his guts there were slightly more than one who would walk through fire for him. For every voter who found his fake religiousity nauseating there was slightly more than one who found it profound. For every voter who felt his refusal to admit error was deeply troubling at best and downright scary at worst, there were slightly more than one who found it resolute in a time of terror. For every voter who thought Bush was a buffoon, there were slightly more than one who found him to be regular folk.

The lesson here is for us to stop trying to find electable candidates. We certainly need to stop worrying about polarizing the country. I have no idea who I will vote for in 2008 in the primaries, but I do know what I am looking for. I am looking for a candidate who knows what he or she stands for. I am looking for a candidate who stands up for those beliefs. I am looking for someone who conservatives hate and liberals love. To Hell with uniting the country and winning in a landslide. A win is a win is a win. Our base needs pandered to. We need a candidate who refuses to admit error. We need a liberal and ethical Bush.

[Hardrada]

1. Or a Very Devious

Jimmy Carter.

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2. I actually would love the chance to vote for him

I was too young when he ran before.

[Erika]

3. Who said he "won". That is very questionable.

A lot of rich people voted for him because he padded their wallets even though they are now facing they gained at the cost to the poor and needy. A lot of ultra religious voted for him because they thought he is part of the rapture.

[The Straight Story]

4. Reminds me of a Stephen King book

The stand.

I am looking for someone who will stand. The right, to me, sees bush as someone who stands even when it is not popular. We don't like him, but he does not care. He does not pander to us.

I want someone on the left who does not pander, someone who will stand for what is good and right. I don't care if they are popular, people respect someone who makes a stand.

Many I knew saw kerry as bending on issues to try to please too many people (people at work mainly). They wanted a strong leader who stood their ground even when it looked like a bad thing. * stood on iraq, 9/11, gay marriage, and so on. He did not pander to us - no damn reason we should have someone who panders to the right or middle.

We need someone who will say what they mean and not waiver on it. Middle america (where I live I believe, in Ohio) likes someone who stands up for something and kicks butt on it and holds their ground. During the 2000 election I was at some bars in small town here. People here were losing jobs, and so on, but they liked bush better then gore because they saw him as not pandering to them but as a leader who stood by his ideals even when they were not liked.

Right or wrong, he was not changing his tune that they could see on things. I just hope we run someone who does not cave into media and spin, that comes out swinging and keeps on plugging away for the workers of america and the people in general. We need a strong message and someone to keep on it.

[Erika]

5. John Edwards is just one of many candidates

who resonate.

John Kerry was great. It's always amused me when posters say Bush was a man of the people when reality shows he is a New England prep school brat, followed by being a Yale Cheerleader, and topping it off by not only avoiding Nam but skips out on NG service and spends that time working on a GOP election in Alabama.

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6. and despite all of that

Bush is still the one who people would like to have a beer with. We can hate it to all get out but he has that man of the people thing down. It is stupid and unfair but no less true for being so.

[Erika]

8. You might want to check polls on that.

Most would favor a chat with Laura. But not Bush. Bush becomes more unpopular each day. So far he's made a mess of the European trip.

[NEOBuckeye]

9. He's such a fake, though! Why can't people see through the facade?

I don't get it.

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17. You can fool some of the people

all of the time. Sadly, Bush is able to fool enough of the people enough of the time.

[LynnTheDem]

14. That was just another rightwing pundit spin. A major RW pundit wrote last

year admitting that, saying "most people dislike bush as a person".

*trying to find that article now and I can't remember who that RW pundit was; one of the big ones..it'll come to me...

No reason to be amazed at how the right are always duped...look how often we liberals swallow the same spin.

Here's an article I found, not the one I'm looking for but it's an excellent read!

Why People Don’t Like Bush

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/943/1/32/

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15. He won an election in which

he was on the unpopular side of nearly every issue. That leaves only one thing left which is personality.

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16. It is a great read

but it is almost entirely about issues, which is Bush's weakness. He does have low numbers and they will likely get lower since he clearly is going to go to the mat on Social Security. IT won't do us any good though as he can't run again.

[The Straight Story]

7. Why I have seen bush as popular

He wants to kick ass, like in the movies.

To wit: terrorist attack us, he goes out and kills some folk. The biggest frustration I saw in clinton days was his lack of using the military to kill some damn arabs after cole bombing and such.

For some reason, people like to see us smack down those who don't like us and want to kill us. People pull together in a time of 'crisis' and whoop some butt (makes em feel like our govt is doing something).

Sad thing is, our government needs to do something about a lot of things which get no coverage - forests, health care, the poor, et al. Bombs and such don't help much there, and people just seem not to care...

[Erika]

10. The Iraqis didn't want to kill us or smack us down.

Where is your reasoning coming from?

[The Straight Story]

11. from here

people. I went to bars, to work, to local shops in circleville.

How did people see Iraq? They saw an evil man in a dictatorship who hated us, and they did not like him.

The Iraqi people they did not see this way, but the leadership they saw as hating us and not caring if we lived or died, and saw them as prefering us dead.

They liked us kicking saddam butt. He was a bad guy. They thought the iraqi people would see it the same way - a dictator (like * perhaps) who cared more for himself then others.

It comes down to, perhaps, how did you feel about saddam? Did you like him, think he was a nice guy, think he was the best thing for his people and that he posed no threats to anyone? Did you think good things about him?

How many people heard the name 'saddam' and thought positive happy thoughts? Hammering him seemed liked, to many I feel, a positive thing.

[Hardrada]

12. The more is the pity.

Garbage in, garbage out I guess. Too bad it means a lot of people killed in a needless war. I have always been amazed at how the ruling classes have managed for centuries to get one set of of poor dumb SOB's to go kill the other poor dumb SOB's!! Still works I guess though if it breaks down as in Tsarist Russia, the entire old system is done for.

[LynnTheDem]

13. True lesson of g.w. bush:

YES it CAN happen here.