Why'd he do it? Why did George Bush propose a series of initiatives widely acknowledged as "dead on arrival"? Obviously to distract from his foreign policy woes-but his proposals also serve as an attempt to recast the healthcare debates in terms favorable to the insurance industry while gumming up the drive for genuine healthcare reform that our nation so badly needs. We'll take a look at the evidence and the unfriendly reaction this plan received around the nation.
(as usual this can be found at Ruck Pad and is at dkos)
The Representative from CA-10 has done a lot of talking in the last few months. She spoke of Kabuki, insinuating that Democrats will be put on a show, but standing, as Sirota says, "for nothing other than than their own party." She has spoken of the dangers of "getting the majority and running over the left cliff". This was of course before the election, which had the lovely consequence of reinforcing Republican talking points that a Democratic majority would be disastrous.
This week, we learn that she is going to some more talking, this time with President Bush. The blogosphere is not happy, worried that this is an attempt by Bush to peel off Democrats for his own agenda. The Democrat, representing a district outside San Francisco that went overwhelmingly for Kerry in 2004 says:
For all the money that the CDP put into tying Bush and Schwarzenegger, and all their self-congralatory praise, it seems that it hasn't really sunk in for the general population. This according to the most recent Field Poll release.
Californians’ view of the overall performance of President Bush remains in a very deep trough. At present, just 29% of this state’s registered voters approve of the job Bush is doing as President, while 61% disapprove. By contrast, voter opinions of Schwarzenegger’s performance have improved throughout 2006, with 48% now approving and 37% disapproving of the job he is doing as Governor. (Field Poll (PDF) 9/30/06)
Those ads where Arnold kept saying "Let's all go out and relect George W. Bush" apparently didn't work. I actually prefer their more recent ads where they actually compare the policies of each, and maybe that will make a difference. However, I haven't seen any of those commercials on the air, so I don't know what kind of buy they put behind that one. If people aren't getting the Bush-Schwarzenegger message by now, peraps we should work another tack.
(Part 2 of the MyDD/Courage Campaign Survey - promoted by SFBrianCL)
Today The Courage Campaign and MyDD have released their candidate memo laying out recommendations to progressive challengers this fall based on the results of the two polls we conducted in CA-50 studying the reasons for Francine Busby's loss on June 6.
What we've discovered is that the lessons learned in CA-50 should be able to travel from district to district throughout the nation.
In a nutshell:
- Promise to hold Bush accountable
- Pick fights, do not shirk from them, to demonstrate toughness and credibility on the accountability issue
- Do not run from the war, run TOWARD it, but make it about oversight, not withdrawal.
The candidate memo can be found in its entirety over the fold.
