Over the past week, Bush has made a major play for voters outside his base and goddamn it pisses me off!
Step 1) Throw a bone to illegal aliens. Solidify it with a visit from Mexico's President Fox.
Electoral Advantage: This'll buy you votes among Hispanics throughout the country.
Electoral Cost: Piss off your traditional racist base.
Monetary Cost: unknown.
Step 2) Offer a massive program to go to the Moon and (possibly) Mars.
Electoral Advantage: This'll let the media talk about you and JFK in the same breath...something that probably would never have happened unless assassination was also included in the same sentence. Buys votes from on-the-fence baby boomers who still lap up everything JFK-related.
Electoral Cost: Piss off your traditional balanced budget base.
Monetary cost: $1 billion
...at this point W's spent over a billion to buy votes among the largest growing age demographicin the country and the largest growing racial demographic in the country, but he had to piss off some of his base to do it...how do you help salve that wound and draw them back into the fold..what do you do...what DO you DO?
Step 3) Offer $1.5 billion to "Promote marriage"? Basically, what you have here is a $1.5 billion dollar doorstop in an attempt to keep the closet from swinging wide open.
Electoral Advantage: Solidify your bigoted base. Stick it to the gay man and still be able to watch Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. It also doesn't affect the primarily-Catholic family-friendly Latino base you just bought in Step 1.
Electoral Disadvantage: Can you name one person that supports gay marriage that would have voted for W in the first place? And don't say Log Cabin Republicans...they'll still vote for him.
Monetary Cost: $1.5 billion.
