Great editorial written by Michael Reagan?yesterday about letting Bush be Bush:?
In his first debate with Walter Mondale, my dad Ronald Reagan fumbled badly ? there was no sign of the Great Communicator during that debate. What there was instead was a Ronald Reagan given bad advice by some of his staff who were afraid of letting the public see the real Ronald Reagan, who they feared might be seen as too conservative.
In the second debate all that changed because my dad insisted upon being himself rather than the namby-pamby moderate politician some of his advisers thought he should be. My dad insisted on being Ronald Reagan, not some pale imitation. He wanted Ronald Reagan to be seen as Ronald Reagan
For a long time now, we have not seen the real George Bush and his low poll numbers reflect that. There is some truth to the claim that he was living in a bubble, isolated from the public by timid staff members who feared allowing George W. Bush to be George W. Bush.
On Monday the wraps came off when the president spoke at Cleveland’s Commonwealth Club and TV viewers across the nation saw the real George W. Bush emerge.
That this was not an isolated event became obvious the very next day at his White House press conference when the media and the nation saw Bush being Bush ? Texas tough, blunt spoken, and totally unapologetic about being what he is. George Bush allowed himself to be George W. Bush, take-him-or-leave-him.
I imagine that there were a lot of nervous nellies among the White House staff who were wringing their hands over the idea that the president was out there in front of the hostile media and nation being exactly what he knows himself to be: a no-nonsense chief executive who is sure of himself, knows his job, knows how to do it, and doesn’t care a whit if the media elite and the desperate Dems don’t like it.
Mark my words, if Bush continues to be Bush and allows the public to see Bush as Bush, his poll numbers are going to rise dramatically despite the efforts of his enemies in the media and the desperate Dems to blacken and slander him and lie about him. And he’ll find the American people, who love a fighter, solidly behind him and all that he stands for as he continues to reveal his rationale for what he is doing ? slowly winning the Iraq war, creating a growing ever-more prosperous economy and the job growth that comes with it, and doing everything possible to keep Americans safe from terrorist atrocities.
[…]This is Bush being Bush ? and he must keep being Bush. The desperate Dems will hate it, the liberal media will hate and the American people will eat it up. As I wrote, they like a fighter. That’s what they are seeing now.
And it’s about time.? Lets hope he continues to be himself.? I myself cheer everytime he fights back against these liberal biased hacks
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I think it is refreshing when politicians speak bluntly and straightforward. Like when our Gubernator called the Dems he was working with, not to be “girly men”.
One of the things we loved about President Bush is he says what he means and means what he says. We’re more suspicious of the ulterior motives of those politicians when they say things because it is the political thing to say; not because it is the right thing.
That is a really good reminder that people voted for Bush because they thought he was a “real guy.” With the handlers stifling him, they’re destroying a large part of his charisma. It’s not the “I feel your pain” and “I love you” charisma Clinton radiates, but a true, hail-fellow-well-met, solid American charm. When Bush is too prepped or too hidden, it’s way too easy for those hostile to him to characterize him as an empty suit controlled by evil neocons.