Tuesday, January 20, 2004
Iowa Means President Bush Has Less Policy Freedom
The conventional wisdom prior to Iowa was that Howard Dean would sweep through the primaries only to run into the Bush buzz saw, as Fred Barnes reports in the January 26th The Weekly Standard:
The president already has $99 million in the bank to spend between now and the Republican convention on Labor Day Weekend. He intends to spend it all. . . . Bush is delaying the start of his reelection drive until a winner emerges in the Democratic race.
Democratic delays will keep the Bush reelection campaign offstage, because ads which would hurt Howard Dean won't work against Kerry or Edwards.
Team Bush has to be more concerned with shoring up its conservative base than it was just 48 hours ago. Bush's statements tonight in his State of the Union that he opposed amnesty for illegal aliens and gay marriage is but a hint of what is to come.
Columnist John Leo warned that "the Bush domestic program pretty much tramples most conservative and Republican principles." A reelection drive against Howard Dean would temp Team Bush to seek 90% of the vote by still more trampling upon conservative values. (But Team Bush should remember that Dean enjoyed 45% support after a week of misstatements and gaffes.)
A Bush reelection campaign against John Kerry or John Edwards would be a far closer contest. And a closer contest means more conservative policies from President Bush. National Review's John Miller got it exactly right today: "high risk/ high reward."
|posted by Jim on 10:17 PM|
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