This next month is the D-Day of the Democratic Party.
This essay is a continuation of the essay I wrote yesterday because, believe it or not, there are still many, many ways in which our current President is living on borrowed time and I think it's critical that we highlight them and put them out there...issues like
- accountability
- real leadership
- the meaning of "hard work"
- the meaning of making excuses
- and above all our own GOTV efforts
are what will turn this election around and influence the conversations that all of us have as we work, over this next month, in the greatest GOTV effort this nation has ever seen. Here's some more reasons why Bush is toast.
I wrote yesterday that George Bush is locked into a dynamic where voters who might support him are softening....and voters who might support Kerry are now finally moving to Kerry.
This is a Catch-22 for the President, because he has been relentlessly negative about John Kerry while never once stopping to highlight and explain to his own "soft support" what his own positive vision for our future is. Further, and more importantly, he has never given a full accounting of the mistakes that he has made. This, in and of itself, is a fatal political mistake. Because, even though the electorate wants this accounting from Bush, Bush must go negative on Kerry now despite the fact that that is ALL he's been doing the last six months. The President's campaign is in a world of hurt.
In this diary I will highlight how five factors contribute to holding Bush in this world of hurt...and are toasting him like an English muffin as we speak.
#1: "hard work" does not equal accountability
Lets take apart the "hard work" line George Bush used during the debate. Clearly, there is something going on here that is more than a nervous tic.
"Hard Work" is as far as George Bush is willing to go in explaining, apologizing, expressing regret or being accountable to the American public. He repeats this line over and over again because it is supposed to create a zone of sympathy and trust in the President. We are supposed to get a "good feeling" when the President talks about how hard it is working for us. However, we all know that this is exactly the tactic that a "C" student looking to get a "B" grade uses with the professor.
Hard work is not an excuse from being held accountable for results, for matching your words to your actions, for telling the truth, for holding that work up to a higher standard. This election is not about how "hard" the President is working for us...it is about his accountability to us for his results in office.
If I had one piece of advice to John Edwards for his debate with the Vice President it would be to use the word "accountability" to frame the debate as much as possible. Dick Cheney needs to be held accountable for his words....for his misstatements...for the results on the ground in Iraq. In fact, if I were John Edwards, I would link this attack directly back to the President and say:
You know, we heard alot from the President about 'hard work' the other night...but what we didn't hear from him was accountability. Accountability for results, for telling the truth, for admitting mistakes, for having a plan to go forward based on what he learned from those mistakes. Hard work does not equal accountability, Mr. Vice President, and America knows that.
#2: Exclusively attacking the "leadership" qualifications of your opponent is, in and of itself, poor leadership.
My dad made a great point to me the other day. He said, "you know, Presidential candidates used to have this formula where they would say something like, if you elect me President, if you give me your vote, as if we, the electorate had some real say in the matter. George Bush talks as if that's a given, he thinks we want to hear him carping about how bad John Kerry is."
In fact, George Bush just spent an entire debate petulantly whining about how this or that aspect of John Kerry's character somehow disqualifies him from being President as if repetetive petulant whining was not itself a disqualifier for the behaviour of a true leader. Who does he think the public are, morons? 65 million people, at least, watched that debate. We should remind a few of them of this disconnect between now and election day.
It's insulting. It's not Presidential. And it's not the character of a true leader.
#3: The GOP are bullies...to their own supporters.
We Democrats forget this, we don't see it. GDoyle linked to a hilarious and sad edit of clips from the Republican convention. Check it out if you haven't already. This is how the Republicans talk to themselves. They enforce conformity through bullying, fear tactics and scare-mongering. They are the worst bullies to their own: in Congress, in the Senate, in White House meetings, in the Cabinet, on AM talk radio.
At some point, folks in this country, especially Republican folks, are going to get tired of being scared and bullied all the time. We are going to get tired of a President who, after spending an entire campaign season speaking to "loyalty oath" crowds, in the lone foreign policy debate with his opponent had this to say when Jim Lehrer asked him if American would be at risk of a terrorist attack if we elected John Kerry:
"I don't believe that's going to happen, Jim. I believe I am going to win."
And when asked about what "miscalculation" he might have made in Iraq said:
"The problem was we achieved such a rapid and overwhelming victory...."
That's not accountability. That's not leadership. That's bullying and hubris. And it's only going to get worse. Because, as we all know, John Kerry won a second look from alot of people in this country last Thursday night including many folks who may have voted for George Bush the last time around. Problem is, the GOP enforces party discipline with bullying and name calling. As those folks step away a little bit, how is George pulling them back in?
More fear. More scare tactics. More implications that a vote for Kerry is "weak" is "un-American" is in sympathy with "foreigners." John Kerry and John Edwards have nothing to lose in pointing this out. As Armando asked almost a year ago:
Aren't you tired of being afraid?
#4: Re-watching the debate it is clear that the subtext is:
John Kerry will fight for you, and be accountable to you. George Bush will make excuses.
It's "hard work" to make excuses. It's hard work to mislead folks and not follow the advice of advisors who had the guts to stand up to you and tell the truth. It's hard work to go before the American Public and say: the problem is the bad guys, not me. It's hard work because it's also called making excuses.
Trouble is, when you get to the end of the day, George Bush has two options, and we know that he's not going to choose to the noble one. So instead, he is going to go ultra-negative on Kerry.
George Bush is toast because the only rhetorical trick left in his arsenal is to try to tie John Kerry to the terrorists and when he does that he will fail. The subtext is everything here.
John Kerry's tactics in the debate coincide with what he is saying he would do. He would have attacked Osama at Tora Bora just like he attacked George Bush at the debates: resolutely, with the best ammunition he had, and without any let up. George Bush, however, if he pulls this linkage of Kerry to the terrorists any further, falls prey to his own subtext.
George Bush will blame the other guy. George Bush needs a "bad guy"....because the bad guy is his excuse. Whether it's Saddam, or Zarqawi, or Osama...or John Edwards and John Kerry. With George Bush, there is always someone else to blame. And, at the end of the day, Americans really, really don't like that.
#5: We are the October surprise.
This the main thing I forgot to mention when it comes to reasons why GWB is toast. Us.
Our GOTV effort, our voter registration, our fund raising, our commitment to countering the GOP spin of the media, our energy, our humor, our resoluteness, our faith, our hope, our optimism, our strength of purpose, our true and abiding sense that our backs are against the wall this time all add up to the main reason that George Bush is toast.
We are making history this October. All of us. It's been brewing since the fall of 2002. Some of us are fighting for Max Cleland. Some of us are fighting in memory of Paul Wellstone. Some of us have staked our efforts on behalf of ALL those disenfranchised in Florida and elsewhere last time around. Some of us are doing this for our children and our parents. Some of us are fighting for ourselves and our rights. Some of us are veterans of the Dean movement. Some of us are long time Kossacks. All of us are fighting for each other, and for a world that we know is possible.
We are Democrats. We have found our voice. We are standing together. And this year, this time...we are the October surprise.
Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. 2004's the election, 2005's the prize. Let's take care of business.