The Note

By PoliPundit ~ June 7th, 2003 @ 11:28 am

The Note is at its insightful best:

How did President Bush become a popular president, overwhelmingly favored to win re-election, with a united base, a fundraising machine, and no nomination opposition?

By learning from the mistakes and successes of his recent predecessors.

41 mistake: Not starting to build a campaign, and raise money, early enough.

43 reaction: (per the Wall Street Journal ’s Washington Wire) “Bush’s big fund-raising month gets bigger … .Fattening his re-election purse before bellwether end-of-month reports, Bush may add stops in Denver and cities in Ohio – finance chairman Mercer Reynolds’s home – to his initial five-city, $20 million tour.”

41/42 mistake: Not keeping their own parties unified.

43 reaction: Doing whatever it takes (minus farm subsidies and free trade purity) to keep the base happy happy happy.

42 success: Divided the other party during his re-elect.

43 reaction: Playing good cop (above the political fray), while the opposition party bickers, using his toughest political allies to sow discord on the other side.

40 success: Adhering to the belief that good pictures on TV and on front pages matter more than anything else.

43 reaction: This week was just the latest one jam-packed with “presidential” photo ops, showing Mr. Bush walking the world colossally. Check out the AP photo of a sleeves-rolled-up POTUS shaking hands with the troops on the front of the New York Times (just to choose one paper at random) to see what we mean.

41 mistake: Letting dangerous issues fester on the Hill.

42 mistake: Letting health care go undone.

43 reaction (per Robert Pear in the New York Times on the Medicare deal in the Senate) “Drug costs are sure to be a big issue in next year’s elections. Administration officials have suggested that Mr. Bush will sign almost any Medicare bill that emerges from the Republican-controlled Congress.” LINK

42 mistake: Running the White House like a cable news chat show – all about chaos, youngsters, last-minute changes, and a, uhm, self-involved leader.

43 reaction: (per Terry Hunt’s AP brilliance) “Bush Trusts Instincts, Works on Success … .President Bush, by his own description, is a practical man, a leader who doesn’t want to waste time on high-profile meetings unless they hold the promise of success.” LINK

“He likes to speak plainly and directly, he says, and tries to get leaders off their formal talking points and into more casual conversations. He trusts his instincts when sizing up people … .”

“When it comes to big decisions, Bush says, he doesn’t wrestle with himself. ‘You know I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about myself, about why I do things.’”

Thus, a fabulous record of political success – leaving just one little (read: BIG) problem: the American economy, as Arthur Sulzberger would say, sucks.

And, as usual, Charlie Cook gets it right:

Charlie Cook’s National Journal column begins thusly: “Unless the economy collapses, next year’s Senate races will be either a wash for the two major parties or a disaster for the Democrats.”

My full 2004 Senate analysis is here.