Why George Bush Will Lose

by Michael Dean

March11, 2004

Dick Morris, writing for Fox News, seems confident that George Bush's attacks on John Kerry's ability to lead will result in an easy victory for Bush next November. Morris argues that Bush's tactics include presenting Kerry as a flip-flopper on important issues, and when he is weakened by those attacks to move in for the kill: call Kerry a liberal. By this time, Morris believes, Kerry will be just another Michael Dukakis or a worn-down Jimmy Carter. I think Morris is whistling in the graveyard.

Kerry, as of today, has a commanding lead over Bush in the polls. True, it is very early in the campaign, and Bush has barely touched his $150 million war chest, but Morris has completely overlooked the other half of the equation: Bush now has a history. And what a history it is.

In his first three years the economy has tanked.

The recovery has failed to add any jobs, the country has been almost constantly at war.

Bush overthrew the government of Iraq on trumped up evidence that has proven to be false.

His henchmen at various agencies have weakened pollution controls and diminished our civil liberties.

Bush's history also includes attacks on social programs, public education, veterans, the elderly, and women.

In these three years he has pushed huge tax cuts through Congress, creating the largest budget deficit ever. Democrats, however, cannot rely on history alone to unseat George Bush. His terrible failures have been largely hidden, pulled off in the middle of the night, or covered with so many lies that those who don't watch closely might be fooled. This is the power of money. To tell the same lies so many times in so many ways in so many television commercials that they become the truth.

We will hear that Bush has "a steady hand" when we know that this is a euphemism for rigid, either-or thinking.

We will hear that Kerry "flip-flops" on the issues, when we know that he thinks deeply about issues and makes difficult choices.

We will hear that jobs are just around the corner.

That tax cuts for the wealthy are good for all of us.

That the world is a safer place now that we are engaged in an endless war.

We will hear all this ad nauseam, to the tune of $150 million.

But the truth will be heard as well, and voters already know that Bush has a little problem with honesty. They have already turned on him, and his lies. That endless stream of them will simply strengthen their resolve to throw him out.

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