You People Are Blind - I Told You Bush Would Win

The BBQ Pit
1

I have read through half a dozen threads in which poster after poster confidently asserts that the American people are “seeing through Republican lies” and “determined to remove Bush” and similar hopeful exclamations.

After the election in November, posting a thread like this might well be met with comments like, "Oh, sure, NOW you crow about Bush’s win. Pretty daring :rolleyes: "

I could defend my crowing by pointing out that last year, I offered a bet on the Bush win, and so I had my money where my mouth was back then.

But I’d like to be able to link to this thread as well. The people that confidently claimed the American people think that Bush is a “threat to civil rights,” that he is terrible for the environment, etc. etc… all that is projecting YOUR concerns onto the electorate as a whole. In fact, the electorate did not think Bush was so terrible a threat to civil rights that he had to be replaced. They did NOT believe his impact on the environment was so terrible he had to go. And this isn’t hindsight talking: I saw it a year ago, I see it today. And I use the past tense to describe a future event because I am writing for Election Day.

If you don’t see it today, then I suggest you are too out of touch with the American electorate. We can discuss the issue back and forth all you like. But on Wednesday, November 3rd, I will be bumping this thread up and saying, “Not only did I tell you so, but I did so confidently and gloatingly, well in advance.”

  • Rick
2

Well done, I admire your commitment.

Unfortunately I believe Bush will win too, however this will still not produce those WMD, and your national balance of payments will be worse, and little or no remedial action will be taken this side of an election.

So I confidently predict there will be a recession this time next year, actually perhaps I should change that timing, there will be a recession in the second quarter.

3

If it happens on the 4th, because of some screwup with recounts or hanging chads or somesuch, we shall crucify you as a false prophet! :wink:

4

Certainly these are good issues, strong issues, and just as certainly they do not resonate with the electorate. Bush stands a good chance of being reelected, but I expect it to be close. Kerry (or whomever) also stands a good chance of being elected, at least as of today. I believe Bush will stand or fall on the economy and Iraq. There’s still nine months to go - further developments on either front would make a big difference, one way or the other.

5

What are you talking about? Bush lost badly. He was followed by President Clinton.

6

This all fine and dandy, bully for you! You must understand that some of us don’t give much credence to the opinions of people who gloat.

I wish I was as cocksure of anything as Tom Macaulay is of everything. - Lord Melbourne

7

Well, I hope you turn out to be wrong, Bricker, but if you are, don’t let it get your gloat.

8

Why don’t you post a similar thread about how confident you are that Bush will lose? Then, come Nov 3rd you can bump up the appropriate thread. You know, cover both bases.

9

I agree with Bricker. I was clinging to the hope that the electorate would suddenly, I don’t know, wake up or something, the scales would fall from their eyes, and they would see Bushco as the profit-mongering fat cat machine it really is.

Then I found a book called “The Clothes Have No Emperor.” A fun, easy-to-read book that chronicles the 80s almost day by day, using news bites and headlines from the popular media, with a focus on the Reagan administration.

Disclaimer: I was wholly involved with serious drugs for the entirety of the 80s. For all intents and purposes, I missed the 80s. Hence the incredulity.

OH MY FUCKING GOD! If the American people could not only elect but re-elect Reagan, today’s Dems might as well give up right now. As a whole, Americans are less informed, less interested and less able to pay attention then twenty years ago (this is my opinion, folks). And the Reagan years, for sheer mendacity, slipperiness, incompetence (by the President), pocket-filling and contempt for the people make Bush seem like Abe Lincoln in comparison, and Ed Meese makes Cheney look like a parish priest. Jaw-dropping, it was. Reagan was obviously mentally impaired by senility or early-onset Alzheimer’s as early as '82, and Meese was grabbing with both hands from the trough, and nobody gave a shit, as far as I could tell. The Iran-contra thing alone was staggering in its lawlessness.

The interesting part was that i believed in the idea of the media as watchdogs, at least back then. To see the “esteemed” New York Times not only casting a blind eye but actually sucking up to Reagan was a bitter pill. Sure, some people and some institutions told the truth, but they were lone voices in the forest, easily swallowed up.

Where was the outrage? America is still crippled by Reaganomics; it’s likely we won’t ever recover. Bushco is here to shovel the last few clods onto our economic grave. And the vast majority of America doesn’t seem to care. The only lie from the White House in the last 24 years that outraged the populace was about a fucking blowjob. It’s no wonder that the Super Bowl tit show is still the biggest news in town.

I don’t know what planet the Reagan supporters were living on. I don’t know what planet the Bush supporters are living on. I don’t understand how fucking inept the Demos have been. What happened to the best and the brightest. I’m scared. Hold me.

10

I take this as a statement of recovery, and offer my heartfelt congratulations.

As to your horror and dismay, truly shared. But if one is truly committed to democracy, as I am, one takes the bitter with the sweet. But is it not better to be governed by a mass of chucklewits, than by an elite order of same? To paraphrase the perhaps apocryphal quote of Churchill: democracy really bites, but all the others bite like a pool of piranha.

Or something like that.

11

I have no doubt that GW will win the next election…if he’s still alive?

Poppy learned his lesson and his gang will have taken steps to assure their victory. Beware Kerry’s health if he starts getting to be a threat. They’ve got Texas and Florida pretty well sewed up and if the Governator stays in Calee-fornia…they’ll take it too. That’s enough to put him back in the Whitehouse. Besides I’m sure he’ll pull a rabbit out of his hat in the final minutes.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s got Osama locked up somewhere and is just waiting for November. Yep, that’d do it allright. Even if it was just a look alike. He’d be back in office before the positive Id. was confirmed.

:tinfoil hat off: :smiley:

12

That thread title made me do a double-take, I must say.
Anyway, given that it will be a tight election, the idea that Bush will win is just wacky. The man has been busy alienating his base in many, many ways. Let us count some:

1 - Legalizing illegal immigrants. Won’t offer a cite for this 'cause it’s not needed, go to any right-wing site and browse around. Won’t be long before you hit some outrage.
2 - The deficit. See The Cato Institute. Right there on the front page: “The Cold, Hard Facts On the Federal Deficit”.
3 - Moving to the right of that base on the environment, because of his obsession with energy: Hunters worry about new drilling.

You don’t win a tight election by dissing your base. Bush has lots and lots of work to do between now and November if he wants his people to trek to the polls on Election Day.
The Dems are not going to have that problem at all. The notable thing about this election season so far is the determination to get someone out there to beat Bush. That’s why Dean is for all intents and purposes dead.

13

Just curious, is this meant to be history, prophecy, or both?

14

pantom, I think you are under the misconception that the majority of voters actually pay attention to issues. It’s my impression they just like a guy or not, and they don’t think much beyond that point.

15

Maybe, maybe not. However, each of those three is an example of a segment of activist Republicans being made angry by something Bush has done. Those people are the people you call on to get the vote out on Election Day, a thing which is crucial in a tight election. Alienating those activists isn’t a good way to get them out of bed on that day.

16

George Bush Sr. had the highest approval rating of any president in history: 91% during Desert Storm. Three years later, he lost the presidency.
The current president passed his dad in popularity at 92% post 9-11. I submit to you two things. 1) An inanimate carbon rod as president could have gotten at least 85% after september 11th. 2) If history has taught us anything, it’s that events are repeatable.

I have no idea whether Bush will win or not. I know that he has the biggest war chest in history and it’s all going to be directed at whichever Democrat emerges from this brutal primary. But that doesn’t mean he’s going to win. Elections live and die by the press and the press is ready to attack. They love attacking both sides, yes, but this has been an administration they’ve had to practically bend a knee for after September 11th. The president rarely does press conferences and they’re extremely vindictive about opposing stories. The press is ready to attack.

His administration ignored security policies before September 11th, shoehorned every conceivable policy they could into the PATRIOT Act, ignored UN policy, and tried to shove church and state back together ignoring their need and constitutional guarantee to be separate.

So yeah, do I know if Bush is going to win or not? No, I still don’t know. But I know for damn sure I won’t be voting for him and I look forward to see how this thread turned out come November.

17

elucidator, thanks for the congrats. I am indeed in recovery (2.5 years, I missed the 90s too).

I’m confused, as it seems your post suggests that I am anti-democracy? Nothing could be further from the truth. I must respectfully submit, however, that that mass of chucklewits you refer to is exactly the reason why we ARE governed by “an elite order of same.”

“Democracy” was a dirty word to the Reagan administration, as it is to Bushco, IMO.

18

Bricker, I trust you have a ready explanation for his negative ratings to be at 50% and still rising, and approval ratings dropping into the low 40’s, if the people really don’t care as you think. Which people, then, are the ones being polled?

No drugs here, since we’re comparing.

19

Why do think you think the servile press will suddenly grow a set? I think their bias towards laziness will win out, and they’ll continue to dance while W. shoots at their feet.

20

Don’t blame me, I voted for Kodos.