MSNBC / Fineman: "That Bush Political Capital Thing"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7641678/

WASHINGTON - You’ve got to hand it to the PR geniuses at the White House. There’s nothing like back-to-back Texas photo ops with Crown Prince Abdullah and Rep. Tom DeLay to give Americans a visceral sense that the Boss is on top of the gas-price situation and desperate to save working folks cash at the pump. Just kidding, of course.

Actually, it’s hard to imagine two political events LESS likely to win the president points. George Bush held hands and pecked cheeks with Abdullah in traditional desert fashion – but the prince gave him the back of his hand on the issue of the moment: oil supply and prices, which the Saudis essentially control. Then the president welcomed the embattled DeLay into his photo space in Galveston. That was no energy-issue coup, either. Until lobbyist Jack Abramoff came into the picture, DeLay’s best-known corporate ties were to corporate titans such as Kenneth Lay of Enron in his home town of Houston.

Yes, Bush has been down politically before, and recovered smartly. He’s a fighter, and has the ability to ignore the gloom and doom around him. Yes, the Democrats don’t have much of an answer to him other than to shout “no” on a host of issues. Still, despite Republican control of virtually every lever of power in Washington – in a way because of that very fact – Bush finds himself playing defense.

In Austin in 1999, he told me and my NEWSWEEK colleagues over lunch one day that he had learned from his father’s experience: if you accumulate “political capital” –as his dad did as Liberator of Kuwait in 1991 – you have to “spend it” on bold action. Well, this Bush chose Social Security – a brave, fundamental and far-sighted choice in many ways. Maybe Karl Rove is right that sweeping reform is the route to a permanent majority of a GOP-led “ownership society” of shareholders. But, in the short run, Bush’s Social Security crusade has bought him nothing but trouble, and diverted his attention from other problems.

[RobertSeattle]

1. Bush has ENRON'd his Politcal Capital

Nuff' Said.

[blm]

2. Democrats have ALOT to say, Howie, but the GOP controlled media only

portrays them as hapless, unorganized, unworthy obstructionists.

Howie, once again, lifts Bush on a pedestal even while he's turning everything he touches into SHIT!

[jaysunb]

6. Well Said

Great post!!
:hi:

[FrenchieCat]

15. So true!

Newsweek is nothing more than the first cousin of Msnbc and NBC.

I guess they don't know that we know that they decide and then they report a bunch of shit!

[lancdem]

3. There's nothing brave about Bush's choice

to privatize Social Security, Howard. The problem is, Bush won so narrowly in 2004 (if he won at all) that he came away with little political capital, yet acted like he had it in spades.

[KlatooBNikto]

4. Note how Fineman injects his own ignorant rant into this item.

He says " Bush chose Social Security-- a brave,fundamental and farsighted choice".He has obviously not gotten himself educated about the fact there is no crisis in the Social Security program.You would be hard put to find anything remotely connected with Social Security in Fineman's essay.The guy is a well trained shill working for Bush from way back when.

[sendero]

14. Oh there's a crisis all right..

... it's called Federal debt and Federal deficits - and nobody is more responsible for both than Repubicans in general.

This guy (Fineman) is a stupid dick who thinks that because he can string two words together he must be able to also string two thoughts together.

Not hardly.

[rocktivity]

5. "(Bush)...has the ability to ignore the gloom and doom around him."

What a...lovely way of saying he's a bottle short of a six-pack.

But then again, look at how much the mainstream media aids and abets him at the public's expense!

:headbang:
rocknation

[Arugula Latte]

7. Al Franken has got to either

call Fineman on his B.S. or cut him off completely, and explain why.

[MsTryska]

8. welp. this is what a second term will get ya.

the honeymoon's over and the thrill is gone, sunshine.

[ComerPerro]

9. What a bunch of Bullshit

The only reason Bush keeps regaining this "capital" is because whenever his numbers drop, they release a terror alert or a story about almost capturing a terrorist.

[Cha]

11. Consider the source..one of THE BIGGEST

WHORES IN OUR PRESS TODAY!

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

13. Hey, DID YOU HEAR that a plane was headed toward the WHITE HOUSE...

...oh, never mind. It was a "false alarm." A blip on the radar. Not a "terra tale" made up by Rove to divert attention from the cesspool Junior's created for himself.

[Cha]

10. "he's a fighter"...BULLSHIT notsofineman!

bush has the repuke lie, fascist media, HUGE GUNS..monkey loving greedmeisters BEHIND him..there is no fight in that pantywaist bush.

[Catt03]

12. So tired of hearing him desribed as "bold", "brave, farsighted"

Any person who has had a problem with drugs/alcohol knows his behavior is that of a dry drunk:

Exaggerated self-importance and pomposity
Grandiose behavior
A rigid, judgmental outlook
Impatience
Childish behavior
Irresponsible behavior
Irrational rationalization
Projection
Overreaction

End of story Fineman