Bush & The Economy: Dueling Commentaries!

[skywalker]

These 2 commentaries were heard on Vermont Public Radio yesterday. They are two sides of the same coin. We'll have to see which will be found to be the most accurate as the months roll on.

It's the Economy, Stupid
Jeff Wennberg



RUTLAND, VT (2002-07-25)

(Host) Will the unfolding corporate scandals erode support for President Bush and boost Democratic prospects in the fall elections? Commentator Jeff Wennberg isn't so sure.

(Wennberg) According to Roll Call magazine, House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt recently told senior House Democrats that if the corporate scandals can be kept on the front pages until November, the Democrats could pick up as many as 40 House seats in this year's elections.

The New York Times has published a column accusing President Bush of shady land dealings and cronyism in Texas. Just about everyone has heard about the Securities and Exchange Commission's investigation into the Dick Cheney's stock transactions while preparing to leave Halliburton Corporation to seek the vice presidency.

Will the crisis of confidence in corporate leadership, coupled with the traditional perception that Republicans in general - and Bush in particular - are too close to Big Business, finally make George W. Bush politically vulnerable? Is this the silver bullet the Democrats have sought since Bush's job approval rating skyrocketed after September 11? Perhaps.

Columnists and editorial writers leapt at a recent CBS poll indicating that 58 percent of Americans believe that Bush is "influenced too much by big business." But the same poll found that 70% of Americans continue to approve of the president's job performance, 68% believe Bush cares about the needs of the people, and 80% say the president shares American's moral values. So while there is concern that the president may listen too much to the wrong people, the crisis of confidence in corporate America has yet to sully our favorable view of George Bush's character.

How is this possible? Well, when another poll asked who was more responsible for the corporate scandals, 33% blamed Bush; but 40% blamed Bill Clinton. Now former President Clinton has hardly been mentioned in connection with this scandal, so Americans are clearly reaching this conclusion without the benefit of media spin' or drumbeat, nearly all of which has been directed at Bush. Why Clinton?

The answer can be found in an ABC News poll released on July 16. When asked what the major factors were that led to the corporate scandals, 88% said "greed among executives," and 74% blamed a "lack of morals in society." Bush himself suggested that a broad moral failure is partly to blame; a belief that is shared by more than seven out of ten Democrats, Independents and Republicans alike, including 73% of liberal Democrats and 82% of conservative Republicans.

Perhaps Americans understand that we're suffering a hangover from the Clinton philosophy that nothing's a problem unless we make it a problem. Like the threat of terrorism, these corporate abuses have grown in the shadows for years, gradually accelerating in both audacity and criminality until something had to give.

And like the war on terrorism, Bush will be judged by his response to this crisis. But efforts to blame him for it's origins are likely to backfire.

This is Jeff Wennberg, in Rutland.

And for the opposing opinion:

President Bush And The Economy
David Moats

MIDDLEBURY, VT (2002-07-25)

(Host) Commentator David Moats reflects on the crisis in American business, and how it is proving to be a crisis in credibility for President Bush.

Something has changed for George Bush. A perfect storm of trouble is playing into doubts already in the public mind about his leadership. You can just imagine the frantic conversations in the White House in the last few days. What are we going to do about the stock market? What are we going to do about the dollar? What are we going to do about our pals in Texas who've caused us so much trouble? What are we going to do about all the snoopy reporters digging through our little business deals back when life was simple and all we wanted was to make some money like everyone else?

The trouble is everyone else wasn't making money the way Bush and his pals were making money. Most Americans don't have the chance to manipulate stock prices in order to make a killing.

A lot of people have a tolerant attitude toward the rich. They figure if people like George Bush can figure out how to score, more power to them.

But something has changed. We already had a recession, which was worsened by September 11. Now we have a government that's racking up deficits again. The shenanigans of Enron and Worldcom and Tyco and Adelphia and Xerox and who knows who else have shaken the confidence of investors around the world. And the stock market, where a lot of regular people have their retirement money, has taken a dive.

So people are starting to wonder what Bush really knows about the economy. His views were shaped among Texas businessmen, whose idea of serving the public interest is to cripple the government by cutting taxes and gutting regulation.

Okay, so Bush's billionaire Enron pals have received their tax cuts, and lack of regulation has created the kind of crony capitalism for which we criticize Indonesia. People are starting to wonder if there isn't a better way to serve the public interest than to turn the economy over to the oil companies.

Unless the news takes a turn for the better, I think we can expect George Bush to become more and more defensive, less and less friendly with the press, more and more testy when his judgment is questioned. He did a good job after September 11, but that was almost a year ago. We've got new troubles now.

Of course, the president can't be expected to control the stock market or the economy, so it's a mistake to blame him for everything. But people are watching how he responds and wondering if the lessons he learned in the boardrooms of Texas were the right lessons for the White House.

Maybe the storm will pass and the stock market will bounce back and the deficits will shrink and we'll catch Osama bin Laden and the Palestinians will make peace with the Israelis and Saddam Hussein will quietly fade away. We can hope for the best. But the storm hasn't passed yet, and people are still watching the sky.

This is David Moats from Middlebury.
(This one was my favorite! )

Mark

[Kiyatha]

Luke, I am your father...

Awww, sorry but I couldn't resist! May the force be with you!

/Kiyatha *prank player*

[skywalker]

Actually, thanx for posting on this thread!

I guess no one really found my post too interesting for comments.

Any relation to Hiawatha?

Mark