Friday, December 26, 2003
The Bush Truth Initiative
The New York Times today has an interesting couple of graphs buried in an otherwise routine article about Karl Rove's developing campaign strategies to cover his boss's ass for 2004. Most of this (Rove's gonna say that Howard Dean is Karl Marx; he's copying down everything the other Dems throw at Dean so he can use it, too; etc., etc.) is pretty much what you'd expect:0 comments
Bush Advisers, With Eye on Dean, Formulate '04 Plans
These graphs, buried deep in the article, however, cracked me up:
But Mr. Bush, some of his own strategists and advisers said, has a long way to go if he wants to avoid being portrayed as a divisive figure who motivates Democrats to vote against him. As a result, the White House is considering using the State of the Union address to propose a big new national goal that would not be partisan or ideological and would help rally the country behind Mr. Bush's leadership, an outside adviser to the administration said. The possibilities floated by the White House include a major initiative for the space program or an ambitious health care goal like increasing life expectancies.
"They want to have the president talk about an important national goal that is big and a unifying theme," the adviser said.
The "What's the Difference?" president will be looking to expand our collective national consciousness.
With something like, "Truth In Our Time."
That's the new George W. Bush Initiative.
Not "Truth If We Have Time," as some critics have scoffed.
From current polling, folks in the White House are firmly convinced that the American people would respond well to a major wave of truth-telling, and that it could be advanced as a unifying force and an important national goal.
Lying has worked for us very well during the president's first term, Rove seemed to be saying, but added, perhaps it's time for us to try something different to stay in front of the wave.
He went on to allude to the fact that large segments of the country already assume that everything President Bush or members of his administration says is a bold-faced lie, so some of the advantages sought with these lies is diminished. To an extent, anyway.
There's still large segments of the population besides our base who buy this stuff, he implied. But, maybe it's time to catch the Democrats napping and be able to develop the Republican brand as the leaders in "Seeking the Truth in All Matters."
We feel that's something that would be forward-looking, and could really excite the electorate. But after a moment, Rove seemed to add: We will, however, be out across the country, assuring our base that "Seeking" won't necessarily mean "Finding." We feel it's very important our base knows we haven't left it behind.
posted by Gotham 11:28 AM
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