Changing Those Poll Numbers...

[Annie]

Links at site:


http://billhobbs.com/2006/05/ripleys_believe_it_or_not.html

May 16, 2006
Ripley's Believe It Or Not

Amazing but true:

Think back to September 12, 2001. Imagine that an omniscient seer had told you then that four-and-a-half years later, the U.K. and Spain would have experienced al Qaeda attacks in their own countries; France's appeasement-oriented government would have been rocked by Islamic riots in Paris and other cities, Denmark would have had its citizens and embassies targeted for Islamic terror attacks on account of political cartoons portraying Muhammed; Russia would have endured a deadly hostage siege by Islamic terrorists at a school full of children; and in all that time, the United States would not have experienced a single additional terror attack on its own soil. Imagine the seer had told you further that the United States would, in the same period of time, wage and win two wars in the middle east, overthrowing the Taliban in Afghanistan and midwifing the formation of a parliamentary democracy there, then driving Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and bringing that destitute country to the verge of its first parliamentary government, elected by nation-wide vote and backed by a western-trained police force and a non-Baathist army, while Saddam himself sat in the dock awaiting the verdict of his trial for crimes against humanity. Imagine he had told you that American combat deaths in these two wars over three years time would not have exceeded 5,000. Imagine that he also told you the American economy would have fully recovered from the 9/11 attack in this timeframe, returning to employment, interest, inflation, and growth rates rivalling if not exceeding those of the Clinton years, despite wartime budget deficits and huge increases in gasoline prices caused by the inevitable uncertainties in the middle east, while the socialist economies of Europe stagnated or shrank. Then imagine that he told you George W. Bush's approval rating just six months after his reelection would stand at 29 percent.

George W. Bush isn't at 29 percent because he's lost support among moderates and liberals - he's at 29 percent because he has been too willing to cave in to moderates and liberals.

The recipe for restoring his popularity to above 50 percent is simple: Bush must screw the Left every chance he gets.

Example: Immigration
Liberals want open borders, amnesty, and quickie citizenship for all the illegals who are here, and millions more who cross the border tomorrow, next week and next year. Why? To add to the government dependency rolls and the Democratic Party voter rolls. But even if Bush gave them that, they'd never be for Bush or vote Republican.
Solution: Give the Left exactly what they don't want: troops on the border, and then construction crews building a wall. And no amnesty-lite guest-worker program. Yeah, some GOP moderates and business types won't like that last part. So what? They're not going to switch over and vote for tax-raising, regulation-loving Democrats. And if a few stay home, well, they'll be more than offset by a surge in support from conservatives. And from the thousands of newly-employed construction workers working on that wall. Just make sure no illegals are doing the work.

Example: Spending
A Republican president can not spend enough to make Teddy Kennedy and his ilk happy. A Republican president can not spend enough to make Democratcs vote for Republicans. Yet that's what GWB has tried to do. However, you can spend enough to make conservatives lose faith in you. Or you can restrain spending enough to attract "Reagan Democrats" - moderate Democrats who lean conservative.
Solution: Slash spending. Now. Propose wholesale cuts to everything but defense. Propose a balanced budget no matter what you have to cut, other than defense - and make the Democrats defend deficit spending.

Example: Oil
Oil is now a national security issue, what with us needing so much of it and so much of it coming from the same part of the world that breeds terrorists bent on killing us, and with it being so important to the continued health of the U.S. economy.
Solution: Issue a presidential finding declaring it to be in the national security interest of the United States to begin immediate oil exploration and production in the coastal plain of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. And along the coasts. The environmentalists and the dog whose tail they wag - the Democratic Party - will howl. But so what. They aren't for Bush and never were. Adults who drive cars will support it. So will the thousands of new and well-paied oil field workers.

Example: War on Terror
The Left never really supported the war on terror - to the Left, terrorism is a criminal act rather than an act of war, and terrorists need to be "understood" and the "root causes" addressed, and by "root causes" they mean "American foreign policy," not "Islamofacist wacko-ism." A majority of Americans understand that Islamofacist terrorism must be defeated.
Solution: Up the ante. More troops killing more terrorists. And get more confrontational with Iran, the root cause of most Islamic terrorism in the world today.

Example: Everything Else
More moderates lean conservative than lean liberal. Figure out what the Left wants, then do the opposite.

 

[Bonnie]

IOU for this one

 

[Diuretic]

What has that writer been smoking/drinking/both??? :alco:

 

[Mr. P]

Lotsa words just ta say, "Ya gotta dance with the one that brung ya".

 

[Nienna]

That makes WAAAYYY too much sense to ever happen.

 

[Diuretic]

But..but..but..the first lengthy paragraph is loaded with distortions. That being so the rest of it is just rubbish. The writer is delusional. Still, I suppose the reality is too much for the poor bastard's mind to consider, so it blew a fuse

 

[musicman]

But..but..but..the first lengthy paragraph is loaded with distortions.

Name one.

That being so the rest of it is just rubbish. The writer is delusional. Still, I suppose the reality is too much for the poor bastard's mind to consider, so it blew a fuse

Oh - you'd be referring to that sharp, cracking report you just heard. Actually, that was the author - hitting the nail right on the head. Your confusion is understandable; it happens so rarely.

 

[The ClayTaurus]

In the words of the philosopher Steven Tyler:

Dream on.

 

[musicman]

In the words of the philosopher Steven Tyler:

Dream on.

I don't know, Clay. The mood of the electorate seems foul, in a way I haven't seen in a while. Does the Republican Party have conservative America over a barrel, as they seem to believe? We shall see.

 

[The ClayTaurus]

I don't know, Clay. The mood of the electorate seems foul, in a way I haven't seen in a while. Does the Republican Party have conservative America over a barrel, as they seem to believe? We shall see.

I don't think this current president will ever satisfy 50% of the country again. I'm ready to declare lame duck status. Now we get to enjoy 2+ years of pandering