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COUNTERPOINT Presidential Success-ion By KELLY WARD 10.2.03 11:47PM CST It just can't be true; there is no way the President can be in control of his own presidency. Behind that charming smile, dim wit and silver spoon must be a puppeteer and a shadow cabinet that's really running things. No one elected this Brain Trust and if it weren't for a national tragedy, this president would never have been given as much authority as he is wielding today. This sounds like the typical Bush-bashing by the 2004 Democratic candidates, doesn't it? Yet it's not. The year is 1932 and this is the overwhelming sentiment of GOP leaders as they struggle to redefine themselves in a world that changed right under their noses while they were asleep at the wheel under Hoover. Today, Democrats find themselves in a similar position as those 1932 Republicans and are choosing to repeat the same failed strategy of "parliamentary tricks" suggested by Mr. Robbins. Talk to any registered, card-carrying Democrat and you're bound to hear dozens of "Fantasy Football"-like President-Vice President lineups, such as Dean-Edwards, Kerry-Dean, Gephardt-Kucinich, Sharpton-Franken, Braun-Donahue, Anyone-Clark, and Clark-Anyone. The permutations and combinations are endless precisely because this is a party that is convinced not that it has a better, alternative solution to America's problems overseas and at home, but that trotting out 10 different challenges to Bush's Imperial Presidency addresses what Americans actually care about. Assemble the right dream team and the right Icon - the Luke Skywalker to stand up to Darth Bush - and voters are sure to follow. Will they? Let's review the strategic landscape the Democrats find themselves in this fall. The economy is showing signs of recovery and there have been no terrorist attacks on American soil since 9/11. Thanks to the USA PATRIOT ACT, numerous terrorist cells were disrupted before their deadly plans came to fruition. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have proven far less dire than Democrats had originally predicted and Congressional bi-partisanship has been achieved on key legislation like education, national defense and prescription drugs. Yet it's not all roses for the GOP. Voters have serious concerns regarding the GOP strategy to finance Social Security, pay for the war on terror, protect civil liberties with regards to PATRIOT ACT II, restore goodwill with traditional allies, empower new friends that are standing up to global terrorism and create more American jobs in an Information Age economy. Except for the most fanatical of the Bush-haters, most reasonable voters see through the Democrats' attempts to resort to "parliamentary tricks" by gaming the right Icon. These voters reject the party's misguided notion that Americans despise their President at a time when Saddam and Osama are on the loose, Iran is close to going nuclear and North Korea IS nuclear. The bottom line is that Democrats will not win unless they develop a comprehensive and compelling counter-plan that builds on the successes gained thus far in the Middle East and Asia, sustains the economic recovery already in motion and promises a better future for all Americans and the rest of the world. Democrats should focus less on the messenger and more on the message that will attract some of that huge swath of middle-America that voted GOP-red and is in between the Left Coast/New England-blue of 2002. Democrats are as wrong today as Republicans were in 1932, attempting to engineer and hoping for an American backlash against a strong president during a worldwide crisis. For the next twenty years the GOP attempted its own version of Mr. Robbins' "parliamentary tricks" including supporting Iconic figures like Gov. Thomas E. Dewey and to no avail. Throughout this time the GOP relied on a strategy aimed almost exclusively at the personality of the president in office rather than offering a counter-ideology worthy of American voter consideration. Today's Democratic nominees are relying on the same failed strategy as their Republican predecessors and seem unable to offer an alternative vision. Perhaps Democrats will learn from history and move beyond "it's the economy, stupid" and "Fantasy Football"-esque statistical strategies to focus on what really matters and what Americans yearn for, the message itself. I don't know if "I Like Clark" will be the Democratic equivalent of the Republicans' successful marriage of message and messenger with General Eisenhower in 1952, but without a counter-plan based on a better tomorrow, "I (Heart) GWB" will be the only button being worn by most Americans come next September when the GOP convention meets in NYC. |
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