The Political Junkies
UPDATED: MAY 22, 2008
WHEN
What happens when you are one of the most unpopular Presidents in history? In recent days:
1.
The US House
overrides Bush’s veto of the Farm
Bill. The vote to override the veto was 316-to-108.
2.
Bush, in an unprecedented political attack on
Sen. Obama, labels him as an appeaser in the mold of Neville Chamberlin.
Within days, Ed Rollins, a legendary Republican political consultant,
appears on national television asserting the President should stop talking
and just serve out his term:
“This president has to--has to realize that he's no longer on the ballot. He has to finish his seven months in office and move on. They have been in a--in a--in a seven, eight year nonstop campaign mode, but it's no longer their game. And the quicker the page is turned by many Americans, including a lot of Republicans, the better--from the Bush administration—the better the people will feel. I think it was inappropriate. I think it gave Obama an issue that he didn't have. . . . So I think this president basically ought to just do his job, let McCain do his job, which is to basically talk in terms of what a future administration is going to be like, and congressional candidates have got to get away from Washington. And if they promise to be different, then they have to be different. We promised that we were going to be a different party, we were going to be a fiscal party. We haven't been a fiscal party, we've spent record numbers in deficits. We promised we'd be a moral party to our values voters, we basically are the ones that have had the scandals. And I think to a certain extent you've got to live up to your promises.”
3. Bush asks the Saudis, our allies, to increase oil production to ease the price of gasoline. The Saudis decline. Within days, the price of a barrel of oil hits new highs over $134.00 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 227 points. The price of gasoline goes up 17 cents within two weeks. Headlines appear that because of energy costs farmers are giving up tractors for mules.
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UPDATED: MAY 18, 2008ROULETTE MCCAIN
Spin the wheel of McCain’s foreign policy roulette wheel – stay in Iraq 100 years, 50 years or 5 years. The only safe bet is that grand croupier McCain does not know, but is willing to shill any answer to convince Americans to place their bets with him.
After his now rather infamous assertion that American may stay in Iraq 50 or 100 years, McCain plays the house odds that America will be out of Iraq by 2013 because we have already won the war:
"By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom. The Iraq War has been won," McCain told an audience of several hundred here in the capital city of a general election battleground state [Ohio].
McCain is saying nothing more or less than he has publicly stated before, he will stay in Iraq as long as it takes – the Bush solution. The only change is McCain’s shill to convince Americans to lay their bets on him by predicting that the end is nearer than he led Americans to believe when addressing the hawks in his Party; promising to stay 50 or 100 years. Depending on his audience, McCain will shill any number on the wheel to win election.
Anyone want to place their bets?
FIREWORKS
Bush addresses the Israeli Knesset accompanied by a display of fireworks as a part of Israel’s 60th anniversary. Americans are focused on Bush’s use of the occasion to mount an attack on opponents of his foreign policy as “appeasers” in the mold of Neville Chamberlin who gave Hitler large segments of Czechoslovakia to buy peace in Europe; a policy that was doomed to failure and war.
But, the real fireworks for Americans may have actually come in Bush’s visit to Saudi Arabia. Bush, who has taken no action to curb the skyrocketing cost of gasoline domestically, promised Americans that he would talk with the Saudis to increase oil production. The Saudi’s declined:
Mr. Bush’s visit here was, in many respects, a reprise of a trip he made to the king’s ranch in January, when he asked for an increase in production and was rebuffed publicly by the oil minister and privately by the king. This time, the Saudis again resisted Mr. Bush, while offering at least the appearance of a concession.
The Saudi oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, told reporters that the kingdom had decided on May 10 to increase production, not in response to Mr. Bush but because customers, mostly in the United States, had asked for it. He said that over the last few months, as supplies from other countries had declined, the Saudis had filled in the gap.
“When supplies from Venezuela and Mexico were reduced to the U.S., who supplied the difference?” Mr. Naimi said. “We supplied, to the tune of an additional 300,000 barrels per day, from 1.4 to 1.7 million barrels per day, for our customers in the U.S. So how much more can we do?”
In short, gasoline will soon climb even closer to $4.00 per gallon at the pump. The political implications for McCain and Republicans in the General Election are obvious. Survey USA conducted this recent poll:
Who do you think is most responsible for rising gas prices?
U.S. oil companies? The Bush administration? Oil producing countries? U.S.
auto companies? Environmental laws and controls? Or someone else?
A: U.S. Oil Companies 29%; Bush Administration 40%; Oil Producing Countries 16%; U.S. Auto Companies 2%; Environmental Laws 9%; Someone Else 4%
Democrats need to be making the case every day of the consequences of four more years of Republican economic policy.
Last Update: 05/25/2008