After you recover from my tag line you may embrace what I am suggesting. President Obama has all the smarts and eloquence to eclipse President Bush. However, there are a few things he should take note on. Whatever you think about President Bush, he may have been a better politician then a public speaker, there are aspects of his presidency that any president that follows may want to emulate.
Many would like to quickly forget about President Bush and look to better days and a brighter future. And whatever you think about if we are better or worse since he was in office is another blog for another day. I believe there were three things that President Bush did very well, at least for the first six years of his Presidency. Bush was able to galvanize his base, was not afraid to make unpopular decisions and kept everyone on the same talking points.
President Bush did one thing very consistently, he not only pandered to his base he held those core Republicans, twenty to thirty percent, for eight years. He galvanized the religious right, and ultra-conservatives. His policy administration was focused on keeping their support. We all remember faith-based initiatives. While pushing his conservative agenda he was able to grab Independents that shared similar conservative beliefs.
The second thing that Bush did well was make unpopular decisions. Even after eight years of watching mangled public statements on any of his skewed policy implementation, you got the feeling that he really was convicted by his belief. His conservative views were some how ordained from God. It was Bush who said that God wanted him to be President. Despite public outcry, he stayed the course and did not buckle to the criticism; he didn’t care. In 2005, President Bush told Mahmould Abbas, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization since November 2004, "I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, 'George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.' And I did, and then God would tell me, 'George go and end the tyranny in Iraq,' and I did. The Iraq war will probably be his most notable of unpopular and bad decisions.
Lastly, Karl Rove wasn’t Bush’s best adviser; it was Karen Hughes. When Bush had a problem getting his point across, often, he would call in Hughes to help frame the argument. It didn’t stop there, they were able to create talking points that allowed all the Republicans to speak off the same page, and everyone was on message. Whatever the problem was, whatever the program you were watching, the message was the same. It was clear and apparent that everyone got the memo.
Obama was ushered in on a wave of hope. Nine months ago the President’s popularity was unbelievable. Now the reality of the job has set in. The Obama campaign was able to create this great Internet support during the election. How they would use those supporters after the election was and still is unclear. The troops need to be galvanized. The Internet supporters would be helpful for going after Republicans in their voting districts. Want to make a Politicians’ nervous? Start sending them tons of emails and letters from their own voting block and you see them very quickly change their position to something closer to yours.
Who would have thought that President Obama would be afraid to make hard decisions that were unpopular? How did the Republicans manage to frame the health care issue against you, a democratic issue, and your campaign promise? Now you look like a sad puppy dog trying to figure out how to create a win-win with the Republicans. Call Steven Covey he will tell you, sometimes you have to move forward without popular support.
And what the heck is the problem with the Democrats’ on the hill? They have become your biggest opponent, how did this happen? No one is speaking off the same page and no one is on message. So, If Obama Called President Bush he would tell him, first get your house in order, this means those on the hill. Secondly, use your Internet supporters to go after those who are playing obstructionist and lastly, you need to do a better job of framing the issues. I can’t support you if I have no idea what I am supporting.
Many would like to quickly forget about President Bush and look to better days and a brighter future. And whatever you think about if we are better or worse since he was in office is another blog for another day. I believe there were three things that President Bush did very well, at least for the first six years of his Presidency. Bush was able to galvanize his base, was not afraid to make unpopular decisions and kept everyone on the same talking points.
President Bush did one thing very consistently, he not only pandered to his base he held those core Republicans, twenty to thirty percent, for eight years. He galvanized the religious right, and ultra-conservatives. His policy administration was focused on keeping their support. We all remember faith-based initiatives. While pushing his conservative agenda he was able to grab Independents that shared similar conservative beliefs.
The second thing that Bush did well was make unpopular decisions. Even after eight years of watching mangled public statements on any of his skewed policy implementation, you got the feeling that he really was convicted by his belief. His conservative views were some how ordained from God. It was Bush who said that God wanted him to be President. Despite public outcry, he stayed the course and did not buckle to the criticism; he didn’t care. In 2005, President Bush told Mahmould Abbas, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization since November 2004, "I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, 'George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.' And I did, and then God would tell me, 'George go and end the tyranny in Iraq,' and I did. The Iraq war will probably be his most notable of unpopular and bad decisions.
Lastly, Karl Rove wasn’t Bush’s best adviser; it was Karen Hughes. When Bush had a problem getting his point across, often, he would call in Hughes to help frame the argument. It didn’t stop there, they were able to create talking points that allowed all the Republicans to speak off the same page, and everyone was on message. Whatever the problem was, whatever the program you were watching, the message was the same. It was clear and apparent that everyone got the memo.
Obama was ushered in on a wave of hope. Nine months ago the President’s popularity was unbelievable. Now the reality of the job has set in. The Obama campaign was able to create this great Internet support during the election. How they would use those supporters after the election was and still is unclear. The troops need to be galvanized. The Internet supporters would be helpful for going after Republicans in their voting districts. Want to make a Politicians’ nervous? Start sending them tons of emails and letters from their own voting block and you see them very quickly change their position to something closer to yours.
Who would have thought that President Obama would be afraid to make hard decisions that were unpopular? How did the Republicans manage to frame the health care issue against you, a democratic issue, and your campaign promise? Now you look like a sad puppy dog trying to figure out how to create a win-win with the Republicans. Call Steven Covey he will tell you, sometimes you have to move forward without popular support.
And what the heck is the problem with the Democrats’ on the hill? They have become your biggest opponent, how did this happen? No one is speaking off the same page and no one is on message. So, If Obama Called President Bush he would tell him, first get your house in order, this means those on the hill. Secondly, use your Internet supporters to go after those who are playing obstructionist and lastly, you need to do a better job of framing the issues. I can’t support you if I have no idea what I am supporting.
In principle, I agree, but staying on message and having a central, precise, and internally consistent view has never been the strong suit of the Democrats. The party is and has been essentially at war with itself since at least the 30s, with the various constituencies constantly at the throats of the others.
ReplyDeleteThe problem that we are now seeing is where a Junior Senator goes to the hill and can't summon the political muscle (specifically in terms of votes) to bring his own party to heel. His former comrades in the Senate see him as little more than a rubber stamp for their legislation and expect him to play ball. They, in turn, cannot bring the unruly members of their caucus in "the people's chamber" to heel. The 'liberal' activist wing is upset at poor progress on the war, and now on health care, jobs, basically everything, and the blue dogs realize they don't answer to the Hill, but that it works the other way around.
In essence, he cannot win--he gets the blame when the rest of the party acts up, unless he wants to start wielding the mighty veto pen against his own party. The president has a strong hold on policy only when the opposing party controls the legislative branch, or if he's got leverage to force deals through the legislature. His only unblemished power now is to wage war and nominate supreme court justices. Barring a humiliating 2010 loss of one or both chambers of the legislature, Mr. Obama is all but stalemated by the divisions within his own party.
I could go on for miles. This is precisely what happens when a Senator is elected President. We get speeches instead of action, as he tries to curry favor with mere words. The guy needs to clean out the cabinet and sharpen the message.