The bash/bash strategy and

Bush sinks; Democrats can't swim
By Randy Schultz

Palm Beach Post Columnist

Sunday, March 05, 2006

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Imagine what Mr. Bush's numbers might be if the Democrats had someone better than Howard Dean, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi in charge.

Some days, Democrats must wonder who the party chairman, the Senate minority leader and the House minority leader are working for. Dr. Dean sounds like someone who wants to run for office, which is the last thing a party wants from the national chairman. No one assumes that Dr. Dean's counterpart, Ken Mehlman, spends his time on anything but raising money and trying to keep the GOP's majority in Congress. Sen. Reid and Rep. Pelosi haven't offered anything noteworthy. As the comedian Lewis Black said, "We've got the party of bad ideas (Republicans) and the party of no ideas."

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My theory is that so many Republicans spent their careers running against government that they don't know how to run it. To them, tax-cutting is running government. I do know that the past 12 months have laid bare the failings of the Bush administration, and many people are looking for an alternative. John Kerry lost because he couldn't adequately answer the, "And your plan is...?" question. He still can't.

Imagine the irony. A candidate does emerge to grasp the nation's attention. He or she talks of a smart national security strategy, an economic growth plan that helps Americans at all income levels, a smart energy strategy that emphasizes technology. The candidate offers an alternative to George Bush. And the candidate is a Republican.

More...

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2006/03/05/a1e_schultzcol_0305.html

Kerry should have had that plan in 2004. I'll save this for all the conservative readers who think I'm a tool of the Democrats.

BROWN: So are you voting for John Kerry? Are you voting against the president? Where are you on that?

HUGHLEY: I'm very clearly voting for John Kerry. I am. I'm very -- you know, to me, I have a hard time voting for a dude that I'm pretty sure I could beat in a spelling bee.

So you know, it's funny because I was watching the last debates, and all of the people were going, "Well, you know, Bush, that's not his format. He's not a good public speaker."

This is a rich white dude who went to Yale. He didn't go to Compton College. If -- if a rich white dude who went to Yale doesn't have command of the English language, he's lazy. That's the deal. He didn't have to walk through a gang-infested neighborhood to do that, just walk past the servants and go to school.

So I think that -- that tells me about the -- the guy who I think he is.

BROWN: Here's what's unsettling for me. I am reasonably sure, because I believe the spell checker was the greatest invention of the last century, that he can beat me in a spelling bee.

HUGHLEY: No, I'm sure. This dude blow up everything he can't spell. How do you spell "Baghdad?" Boom! "That's how you spell it."

I mean, you know, I -- I joked because that's my gig. But I think, also, really I'm not pleased with the way I've seen the country go. I think that this election is -- as it is for all incumbent presidents -- a referendum on what we've seen.

You know, everybody likes to say what would John Kerry do? I can't know that. I don't have a crystal ball, as I'm sure many political pundits do. But I do know what George Bush has done.

And almost every promise he's made to us has -- has -- he constantly asks Kerry how can you trust a man who you don't know where he stands? Well, how can you trust a man who everything which he tells us turns out to be wrong?

So I think that there is the opposite side of the coin, also.


http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0410/09/asb.01.html