Joobo the King of Wisdom

Time Magazine: Is Bush Beating His Enemies Once Again?

The American media likes to make everyone think that President Bush is stupid, cannot read or speak, yet somehow is able to make his political enemies look foolish and stupid. In mid 2004, the media had Bush defeated for a second term, yet he came back to win - convincingly, we might add - in November. In 2002 and 2004, despite history being against him, Bush won seats in the US Congress.

This year is no different: the media likes to talk about his "plummeting poll numbers" and that they had the Downies installed as the majority party in April, May, and June. The media likes to have the election results months before the actual election.

So, as we move towards the end of September, and those terrible poll numbers for President Bush and the Republicans that the media has been trumpeting for months move in the GOP's direction and against the Downies, the media looks for reasons; after all, how could Bush win again? How could this be happening?

Time Magazine asks this question, and finds that not only is President Bush winning the argument, but that the Left is losing:

Bush at the U.N.: Another Political Masterstroke?

President Bush has been so busy lately giving speeches and taking questions about terrorism and Iraq and the ideological battle against Islamo-fascism that he's practically owned the airwaves. Which is just what Karl Rove wanted. Bush's address at the United Nations General Assembly today may have been a long-scheduled, annual diplomatic event. But it was also a key piece in an elaborate Labor Day political strategy devised by the man whose job it is to keep Republicans in control of Congress in November and thereby salvage the President's legacy. In the past two and half weeks Bush has given a major address on detainee policy, a series of speeches surrounding the five-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and an extensive press conference — all of them covered as Presidential rather than political events by the cable channels and, for the most part, the broadcast networks. ABC even broke into its daytime programming to carry Bush's United Nations speech this morning. The result has been saturation coverage of the President talking tough on terror, just as Rove planned.

Democrats and some observers have argued that the old strategy — that making the election about national security, a traditional G.O.P. strength — wouldn't work this time because voters have gotten wise to it and are generally fed up. But this morning's Gallup Poll numbers in USA Today suggest otherwise; Democrats may have reason to panic. Bush's approval at 44% isn't great, but it's a 12-month high. Still better news for the G.O.P. is the so-called "generic " — in which likely voters say whether they plan to vote Republican or Democratic in congressional races this fall. The result — a 48-48% tie — is potentially catastrophic for the Democrats. Recent polling history suggests the Dems need at least a 5-point advantage in the generic just to break even in the midterms. This is just one poll, and it's just a snapshot. The Democrats' advantage may reappear. But for now, it's clear that Rove's strategy is working.

As politics, the President's United Nations speech was genius. It almost didn't matter what he said as long as he talked tough. He lectured the bad guys — Syria, Iran, Hamas, etc. — and promised to stay the course in Iraq. He invoked 9/11. He said he hoped for a diplomatic solution to the nuclear crisis with Iran but offered no new means to achieve it. He was Presidential. Expect another bump up in the polls.

You know that the MSM is panicking when they start calling President Bush "presidential." This way, when the Republicans either win seats or do not lose as many as predicted - especially if they hold onto one or both houses of Congress - the media can claim, "Hey! We saw this happening in September."

Sorry, folks, but we saw it happening in July.