Bush 43 takes Center Stage - finally

The initiative that began Nov 11 to rehab Bush 43's presidential leadership, and regain control of the Iraq policy debate got into high gear Wednesday with the president's excellent speech at Annapolis and the release of the document called strategy for victory in Iraq.  (HT: Kelly IP, Owens NRO) The domestic political debate is now arranged perfectly for victory. Despite the honest anxieties about the effectiveness of the war's military operations and the unrelenting sufferings from the still evident violence, progress is being made. There is a path toward success and the American people still believe the benefits of victory will be worth their sacrifices. The vote Dec 15 will be successful and the new government of Iraq will become stronger. If Bush 43 keeps his rhetorical campaign up, the nation will be well served and the chances for US success in Iraq will be greatly enhanced.  Whatever the values of executive decisions and internal leadership, one of the most important jobs of a president is as a political performance artist.  This is show time for Bush 43, and an opportunity for the people to see him redeem his leadership aura at just the time it is needed most. This is a true Media-ville moment.  As I had mentioned some days ago, Murtha's melt down did everybody a favor.  This focus of the public mind is the resulting clarity I had hoped for.  DC now has established the boundaries of the debate:

• Choice A: Stay, fight and create a stable Iraq that represents its people's desire for freedom and peace.
• Choice B: Cut and run and live with the bloody consequences all know will happen.

The D's Bush-lied campaign was going to be short lived from the start. It wasn't true, as a simple examination of the record would eventually reveal. But in the short term, the Senate and House Ds cynical Bush-lied campaign did further erode Bush 43's legitimacy as the leader. The Ds no doubt justified this as the rough and tumble interaction of the political process, and had in mind the worthiness of their social and domestic agendas.  But the tool used against Bush 43 was the non-political strategy and program to persecute the real life-and-death Post Sept 11 War and do it while American volunteers where risking their lives for freedom. And on this score, the Ds misjudged the people. (WP, LGF) The D leadership's betrayal of the truth during war time for short term political gains will be remembered for its perfidy. Rather than honestly focusing on the effectiveness of military operations and pacing and intensity, what the opposition political class did was accuse the commander-in-chief of treason and assert the idea that the US was making war for a lie!  This vile calumny was not only factually wrong, but also strategically disasterous to the long-term interests of Democratic party. Perhaps Bush 43 in history will be granted credit for deliberately remaining silent to entice his opponents to overearch.  Maybe. (Editor's aside: Gen. Pace has a clue on the need to proactively "tell" the war story. Pace manfully takes the blame for the military's inability to tell the story, rather lay the blame on the US government's executive leadership, and the anti-war drumbeat from the mainstream media! WS)  When historicans write their texts someday, they will have to calculate in the devestating Hurricane Katrina, and the political leadership's pathetic response, and also Bush 43 tone-deaf nomination of his personal lawyer to the Supreme Court. These twin disasters caused Bush 43's leadership aura to collapse. He lost the trust of the people with his choice on staffing emergency responders, and clueless performance during Katrina's early days. He lost the backing of his political supporters and the respect of his opponents with the Meirs nomination.  This collapse of consensus still threatens Bush 43's agenda.  More importantly this collapse in faith in presidential leadership came just when the American people needed trusted leadership to successfully conclude the final phases of the Iraq campaign.  Still, now that Bush 43's pro-active outreach campaign to explain the Iraq campaign is underway, there is hope that this particular phase of the debate is over. (Bush, WH, WH2, Speeches, Archieves, Iraq National Stragegy PDF)

Quillnews questions about political next steps: After all is said and done, you have to wonder at the future of the Democratic Party?  Their anti-war, anti-military, arrogant, elitist, fringe anti-American rhetoric remains.  For how long will the Ds and their paymasters put up with this political strategy, its architects and performers?  With the war against militant and violent Islamists in its early days and expected to last a decade or two at the least, who will ever trust the D political crew to be the guys responsible for the nation's defense during war? The people will contrast the D's Copperhead-redux performance with the perhaps ham-handed and occasionally tongue-tied performance of Bush 43 and see a guy standing by his guns - no matter what. Which will American's admire? Over time, who will the American people reward?  D greybeards and bankrollers better get a pro-victory clue fast, or the Democratic Party will be remembered as the party of surrender and weakness, and professional political packagers and their funders will be spending the rest of their professional lives being forced to remake a new American political party to counter the GOP.  (Max Boot LAT, WS, Podhoretz NYP, WS2, Lieberman WSJ, CQ, NYS, Cheney, Rumsfeld, WSJ)

Comments

[Ron Copfer]

"This is show time for Bush 43, and an opportunity for the people to see him redeem his leadership aura at just the time it is needed most."

What prarie grassland are you smoking? Aura?

I'd say you are mistaking Rove paintings with real leadership skills, something dubya doesn't have a clue about and apparently neither do you!