The Five Point White House Recovery Plan

Did you see Josh Bolten's five-point White House "recovery plan"? This is from Time Magazine. Part of the plan is to brag more about the economy. I'll let you make up your mind about whether this will work:

1 DEPLOY GUNS AND BADGES. This is an unabashed play to members of the conservative base who are worried about illegal immigration. Under the banner of homeland security, the White House plans to seek more funding for an extremely visible enforcement crackdown at the Mexican border, including a beefed-up force of agents patrolling on all-terrain vehicles (ATVs). "It'll be more guys with guns and badges," said a proponent of the plan. "Think of the visuals. The President can go down and meet with the new recruits. He can go down to the border and meet with a bunch of guys and go ride around on an ATV." ...

2 MAKE WALL STREET HAPPY. In an effort to curry favor with dispirited Bush backers in the investment world, the Administration will focus on two tax measures already in the legislative pipeline--extensions of the rate cuts for stock dividends and capital gains. "We need all these financial TV shows to be talking about how great the economy is..." said a presidential adviser. "This is very popular with investors, and a lot of Republicans are investors."

3 BRAG MORE. White House officials who track coverage of Bush in media markets around the country said he garnered his best publicity in months from a tour to promote enrollment in Medicare's new prescription-drug plan. So they are planning a more focused and consistent effort to talk about the program's successes after months of press reports on start-up difficulties. Bolten's plan also calls for more happy talk about the economy. ... to trumpet the lofty stock market and stable inflation and interest rates. They also plan to highlight any glimmer of success in Iraq...

4 RECLAIM SECURITY CREDIBILITY. This is the riskiest, and potentially most consequential, element of the plan... Presidential advisers believe that by putting pressure on Iran, Bush may be able to rehabilitate himself on national security, a core strength that has been compromised by a discouraging outlook in Iraq. "In the face of the Iranian menace, the Democrats will lose," said a Republican frequently consulted by the White House. ...

5 COURT THE PRESS. Bolten ... believes the White House can work more astutely with journalists to make its case to the public, and he recognizes that the President has paid a price for the inclination of some on his staff to treat them dismissively or high-handedly. His first move ... was to offer the press secretary job to Tony Snow of Fox News radio and television, a former newspaper editorial writer and onetime host of Fox News Sunday who served George H.W. Bush as speechwriting director. Snow ... is the bona fide outsider that Republican allies have long prescribed for Bushworld and would bring irreverence to a place that hasn't seen a lot of fun lately. ...

Update: CNN reports Tony Snow Likely to Take White House Post

Update: Flip-flops appear to be part of Bush's new strategy:

ThinkProgress: Bush Flashback: Using Strategic Oil Reserve To Lower Prices Damages “National Security”: President Bush will order the Department of Energy to stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Oil Reserve “in order to get more fuel on the market and help reduce rising gasoline prices.” In September 2000, then-Gov. George W. Bush criticized President Clinton for proposing to use the strategic oil reserve in response to high prices:

The Strategic Reserve is an insurance policy meant for a sudden disruption of our energy supply or for war. Strategic Reserve should not be used as an attempt to drive down oil prices right before an election. It should not be used for short-term political gain at the cost of long-term national security.

Today, Bush did precisely what he criticized President Clinton for five-and-a-half years ago. WSJ report: "Bush moved to temporarily halt deposits to the nation's strategic petroleum reserve to make more oil available for consumers and relieve pressure on pump prices."

Comments

[calmo]

Time writer Mike Allen adds:

Veterans of this and other Republican White Houses said that although they believe Bolten's first corrections have helped, they have not gone deep enough, mainly because most key decision makers--including Bolten, Rove and their staffs--continue to be people who have been in the Bush bubble for six years or more.

to a script that otherwise reads like a football team's prospects for the rest of the season with a new defence coach.
I thought that Mark's 5 pt plan might have been an unfair translation of Time's report, but no that is it: marketing strategy over policy development.
This is not a service from one of our mainstream magazines that we can afford to continue. Time Magazine has to take a more responsible attitude to national politics and realize that those poll numbers really do mean that people are smarter than this.
It does work better in the business/marketing section, no?

[save_the_rustbelt]

Do I hear Celine Deon singing in the background?

The ship is sinking.

[dryfly]

The ship is sinking.

I disagree Rust - and I am NOT a Bush Backer. I think their plan will be MORE than enough to get them through the mid-terms with solid majorities and well on their way to a peaceful retirement.

Two reasons:

(1) It won't take much to settle their base. Most GOPers aren't that unhappy with the way things are going. I go all over middle America including your neck of the woods and while conservative folks grumble a little about Iraq & gas prices neither has really shaken their lives a whole lot. A little window dressing will smooth most of what little discontent they feel.

(2) The Dems STILL don't know how to be an effective opposition party. They have to AGGRESSIVELY point out the weaknesses of the current policy path and then offer a clear PHILOSOPHICAL alternative not a wonkish laundry list of policies.

The Dems are still trying to 'triangulate' - hold their base and play to the middle - which might work if the 'other side' wasn't playing to their base so strongly. So instead of winning over BOTH the middle and their base, the Dems get tepid support from both middle & base and their head handed to them.

Result I believe will be a GAIN by the GOP in the Senate (maybe as much as 60 seats) and at least hold steady in the House.

The only thing that could rock the boat is a major unforeseen 'externality'... and I don't see one, not even Iran is going to blow up on them unless they decide to push it and they won't until after the second Tuesday in November.

I may be wrong but I doubt it.

[save_the_rustbelt]

dryfly:

I agree with much of your analysis, especially the incompetence of the Dems, but I'm not certain Rove has one more miracle in him.

AS to #1, the Dems may not have strong candidates and could, gasp, even lose statewide races in Ohio, the recession and corruption capital of the world.

Pros: the pro-life cultural conservatives will tend to stick with Bush and the GOP house candidates (the Dems need to get the blue collar pro-lifers back into the party, but are apparently clueless about this).

Con: energy and Iraq are going to be unmanageable and Bush will be beaten like a cheap drum

Immigration: either way,someone is unhappy

The GOP has one thing going for it, the apparent advantage of incumbency in House races (although there are a lot of retirements, including our boy Oxley).

AS to the "ship is sinking, " win or lose, Bush is a really lame duck, with Iraq and energy clipping both wings. IMHO.

[dryfly]

AS to the "ship is sinking, " win or lose, Bush is a really lame duck, with Iraq and energy clipping both wings. IMHO.

Yup. But I'm not sure he cares. He has done most everything he wanted to do - get Saddam, cut taxes & appoint a mess of judges to the court - and has enjoyed an Imperial Presidency to boot, his primary objective from the start I believe... so he can't be too disappointed.

Okay 'entitlement reform' escaped for now... but I'm not even sure that excited him all that much, pretty wonkish argument. Not like the tax cuts, judges & Saddam.

The only thing he wants to avoid is a hostile congress the last two years & the '5 Points' and fractured democrats will assure he avoids that.

Then it will be two more years at Crawford as President before the rest of his life there as 'Ex-President'... Bush the 'Sage of Crawford'.

And I'm not trying to be snarky - just calling it the way I see it.

[Betsy L. Angert]

Dear Mark . . .

After reading of this nation’s mayors meeting to discuss gun controls, I was almost excited. They stated, the national government does nothing to upset their base, thus they must act.

Now, I am reading your post and again I am extremely disillusioned. Can a country get any worse than this one is? Can our leaders be more inept? When do we as a country, or Bolton’s, this one or the other, stop catering to cash contributors?

Recently, I indulged myself in the silly. I wrote of Shrubs and Bush’s. Bolton’s, Josh and John may have studied to be Bush’s.

Feel free to read what it takes to be a Bush. It was written in fun, or during a freak-out.
SHRUBS GROW. WHAT OF BUSH’S? ©

It is only the giving that makes us what [who] we are. - Ian Anderson. Jethro Tull . . . Betsy
Betsy L. Angert Be-Think

[bakho]

Raising CAFE fuels standards by a paltry 10% to a truly pathetic 30 mpg would reduce the demand enough to lower gas prices. By dropping the ball on fuel economy this president and this Congress have placed consumers in position to be screwed by big oil. Increasing fuel efficiency would be the quickest and easiest path to deal with our current gasoline situation. We cannot let this bunch off the hook for their failure.

[save_the_rustbelt]

Betsy:

Don't confuse the country with the government.

The country alwasy finds a way to overcome whatever inept goverance we have at the time.

[STS]

dryfly:

One other thing you left out on Iran. The plan probably includes a crescendo of sabre rattling before the election, preferably with some embarrassing vote in Congress to support tough action so all the Democrats can be pinned between common sense and political noise. Any actual strike would happen after the election as you said.

Flag waving political profits to be reaped before election day, nasty geo-political and military consequences safely after the election. Full replay of the 02 midterms where foreign policy is concerned.

'Sage of Crawford' would be lol funny ... if it weren't so bitterly ironic. One hopes later generations will repair the record with something more along the lines of 'Shill of Crawford'.

[donna]

"Can a country get any worse than this one is? Can our leaders be more inept? "

Heh. You ain't seen nuthin' yet. Bush is the warm-up act to the REAL disaster waiting to happen in a few years. The only real question is, can the Republicans figure out how to make the Dems the fall guy, or will they produce the next "Hoover"?

We got a little bit of up left, then a whole lotta down, people. A whole lot of down.