Commentary by H.G. Listiak

Wednesday 2/25/2004

Welcome to My World, where President Bush, in a Monday evening address, took off the gloves and rolled the G.O.P juggernaut, basically kicking off his campaign for re-election. And folks, it's going to get rough out there on the stumps. Bush, who had planned to stay above the fray until after the Democratic Convention, where his opponent will become official, accelerated his time table, forced on the defensive by criticism from the Democrats, the liberal press, and the T.V. talking heads, over the economy, the war in Iraq, and his Vietnam era military service. Months ago the Bush campaign put out a memo explaining that he would not be the first incumbent to trail the polls and suffer politically during the opposition's primaries and he was prepared to wait. But then the Democrats slung heavy mud and made it personal. Coming out of the gate too soon is the wrong thing to do in politics, just ask Time and Newsweek cover boy Howard Dean. The only advantage Bush has over front runners Kerry and Edwards now is that in order to get where they are, they have pretty well burned up their rhetoric, shooting up much of their ammo before the battle begins. Bush, in the speech, pretty well laid out the issues, drawing the line in the dirt, waging early war on the left side waffling. He said the Democrats offer diverse opinions on a host of issues, for tax cuts and against them, for liberating Iraq, and opposed to it, pointing out several other issues before adding, "and that's just one Senator from Massachusetts", referring to John Kerry, but you know it could have been Ted Kennedy. Don't go into a tizzy libs, I'm just joking. The bottom line here is despite the barrage of Bush hating, I think the President should have been more patient. He has better things to do right now than joust with his opponents, who have for the most part only questions, with no real answers, coming up with only negatives, most of it personal, and no valid positives. Maybe he should have waited longer to roll the G.O.P. juggernaut and let those who simply hate his guts shriek and scream at the voters, who as Americans, will go above the noise and cheap shots, as I see it ... I'm H.G. Listiak.