Keep Fighting the Good Fight
As a Republican, that’s the message I take from this USA Today article. I can’t say that it surprises me, though. I’ve never participated in the ‘Gloom Parade’ that other conservatives have. I knew there would be a bounce for President Bush following the foiling of the terrorist plot in London. My only question was what the size of that bounce would be.
Now 42% of Americans say they approve of the job Bush is doing as president, up 5 points since early this month. His approval rating on handling terrorism is 55%, the highest in more than a year.
I explain the President’s jump in handling terrorism by simply saying that his rating dropped at a time of his policies’ greatest success. People didn’t take his policies seriously because we seemed to be on autopilot, with the world of dangers seemingly contained. When Americans woke up and realized that al Qaida had plotted another extraordinary terrorist attack, and that we’d cooperated with the Brits and Pakistanis to foil it, people snapped back to reality.
A recent poll (I think from CBS but I’m not certain) said that Iraq was the biggest issue for voters at 28%. Terrorism was second at 17%. The thing is that that poll sampled far more Democrats than Republicans. That doesn’t mean that that poll doesn’t tell us some useful information. What it tells me is that Democrats are rallied when the subject is Iraq because they’ve become the anti-war party.
What that poll doesn’t tell us is that the rest of the people think terrorism is the leading issue of our time. Let me illustrate:
People hear the Agenda Media’s reports and have a generally negative perspective on the war. Some think that we should send in more troops. Call that the McCain/Kristol Camp. Others think that we should redeploy to Okinawa and beyond. Call that the Murtha/Pelosi/Lamont Camp. Most people think that the Bush administration made some costly mistakes but they see the importance of staying the course. In other words, they don’t like what’s been happening there but they’ll tolerate it, at least temporarily.
On the other hand, when people hear about a foiled terrorist plot of the magnitude of 9/11, people notice. That type of event gets their full, undivided attention. We snap back to the reality that there’s a ton of bad guys out there who want to kill us and we know that the President’s policies matter, whether we’re talking about the NSA’s TSP or the communication between the intelligence community and law enforcement that the Patriot Act legalized.
This issue moves voters because they noticed Democrats rejoicing when Anna Diggs-Taylor ruled that the TSP was unconstitutional. They also noticed that Democrats rejoiced when Harry Reid declared that he’d “killed the Patriot Act” this past December. Here’s what Russ Feingold said about the Patriot Act being filibustered
“Today’s vote is a great moment for our Constitution and our democracy and a great moment in the fight against terrorism. If you don’t have the confidence of the American people when it comes to this fight against terrorism, if they fear that somehow we’re going too far and going after the rights of law-abiding citizens, it will weaken our ability to win in that all-important battle.”
Focus on the second half of the first sentence. “Today’s vote is a great moment…in the fight against terrorism.” How can anyone take that statement seriously? By letting the Patriot Act lapse, the Gorelick Wall is rebuilt. The Gorelick Wall was the wall that stood in the way of the intelligence community talking with law enforcement. Shame on Sen. Feingold for saying that. He should be ridiculed for such an unserious statement. It’s a statement to appease the Nutroots lunatic fringe base, the same group that won the Connecticut Democratic primary for lightweight Ned Lamont.
I’m betting that I’m not the only one who’s noticed these things. I’m betting that you saw through these charades, too. I’m betting that the Agenda Media hopes you didn’t.
Now it’s time to go out and prove the Agenda Media and the Democratic Party that they bet wrong.
Technorati: Patriot Act, NSA, Harry Reid, Pelosi, Murtha, Lamont, 2006 Election
Cross-post at LetFreedomRingBlog
August 23rd, 2006 at 6:15 pm
Well, that depends on what, exactly, the good fight is. Is it fighting terrorism, or is it fighting Democrats? Predictably, the latter.
To whit, the so-called “agenda media” has failed to report the true nature of the “foiled” attacks. First, none of the supposed terrorists had purchased an airplane ticket, and several did not even have passports. Second, the case was “cracked” by British intelligence working in Pakistan. Having just returned from an extended stay in Europe, I can say without hesitation that the reports in their media were explicit regarding the source of information, and specifically, that US intelligence had nothing to do with the discoveries. So much for the PATRIOT Act and NSA spying saving the day. But to hear Bush, you’d think he’d personally turned over the rocks in the caves sheltering bin Laden to discover the information. No such luck.
But what more should you expect from a liar who uses phony, drummed-up information to scare the American people back to his side? We’ve seen quite a show since 9/11, with foiled plot after foiled plot eventually being exposed as phony attempts at bolstering support for the power-hungry conservatives. But stop real terrorism? Hardly.
Indeed, Bush’s poll numbers bounced from this rediculous scheme. And now, we all get to be reminded every time we go to the airport, take off our shoes, relinquish our toothpaste, and head off to the gates. Be afraid… be very afraid. And don’t forget to vote republiCON, for more of the same. Meanwhile, the terrorists don’t have to lift a finger to strike at America. The radical right does it for them, all in the name of stay the course!
August 23rd, 2006 at 6:42 pm
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