During the second debate, the Bush campaign's endgame strategy became obvious - attack John Kerry. Based on the concept that the best defense is a good offense, the Bush team has gotten offensive.Putting aside for the moment the facts behind that charge, let's look at the basic weakness of the strategy. George W. Bush is the incumbent running for reelection. By all rights, he should be running on his record, promising to deliver more of the gains he made in his first term.
Unfortunately for the Bush team, any gains are hard to find. Over one million private sector jobs are lost, the worst performance since Herbert Hoover. A budget surplus has been turned into record deficits. This administration's response to a calamity that could have become the greatest opportunity for America to change the world has instead resulted in the U.S. President becoming the poster child for terrorist recruitment.
And the bad news for George W. Bush just keeps rolling in. The latest employment statistics were a disappointment. The Duelfer report, prepared by George W. Bush's handpicked man, says the main reason given for invading Iraq was phony. Then Paul Bremer, Bush's "man in Iraq", said that the postwar occupation was badly mishandled. Meanwhile, poverty rises, mortgage foreclosures are at an all-time high, schools are overcrowded, health care costs zoom even as more people lose coverage - in short, America is going downhill.
What's a president to do?
The answer Karl Rove and his band of brigands came up with is not to talk about the Bush record, but to attack their opponent. They don't want this election to be a referendum on George W. Bush's first term; they want it to be a referendum on what they claim John Kerry would do.
Which brings us to the offensive part.
For as much as the Bush campaign tries to obscure the facts behind their own candidate's dismal record, they are trying just as hard to obscure the facts of John Kerry's campaign. They twist statements, invent numbers, and use scare tactics in a desperate attempt to lie their way to victory.
They even dare to impugn the heroic war record of their opponent when their own man was, at best, a deserter who used his daddy's influence as a Congressman to get away with it.
Any loyal, patriotic, red-blooded American would be offended.
The basic fact is that radical right-wing conservatism has failed. It has failed to create jobs. It has failed to provide a way out of poverty. It has failed to make health care available. It has failed to lead the world. It has failed to make us safer. It has failed economically, militarily, socially and morally.
Copyright 2004, Dan Jacoby
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