[NormsRevenge]

John Hood is President of the John Locke Foundation in North Carolina and author of "Investor Politics."

[RiflemanSharpe]

GWB can lose. If the dem nominee plays the moderate and hammers the lack of good paying jobs and the deficit GWB will have a fight on his hands. Nothing is for sure.

[cripplecreek]

there are 3 basic problems i have with all politicians in washington. they are in no specific order. overspending, jobs migration, and ignorance of border control.

[billorites]

"How Bush could lose it"

Well, if he goes back on the sauce...

[verity]

A longer version of this essay...

Oh, Lord, this was long enough.

[billorites]

"How Bush could lose it"

If he dumps Cheney for this guy...

[jla]

fyi

[Cobra64]

"...have been dismayed by Bush's dismal record on federal spending and entitlements. Non-defense discretionary spending under Bush and a Republican Congress soared by nearly 19 percent in two years..."

I'm dismayed too. More entitlement programs... W seems more like Johnson than Johnson.

[VRW Conspirator]

But the latter (general public) want to see some significant efforts in the right direction - at least a firm commitment not to start any new, likely- to-burgeon programs and a willingness to negotiate aggressively with pork-crazy lawmakers.

Many good points here - well reasoned analysis. The above line gets to the heart of the Bush leadership. Is he going to change the party of Reagan into the party of George Bush II by redefining the platform to accept big government spending as a norm. This, IMHO, is the chink in the armor.

[RLK]

Poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates. Jan. 22-23, 2004. N=1,233 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3. . "Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?"

Approve Disapprove Don't Know

1/22-23/04-- 50-- 44-- 6

1/8-9/04-- 54-- 41-- 5

12/18-19/03-- 54-- 38-- 8

12/11-12/03-- 51-- 42-- 7

11/6-7/03-- 52-- 40-- 8

Zogby's show lower support and higher negatives for Bush.

[Hank Rearden]

I'm not interested in Big Stupid Government politicians of any stripe.

I'm voting Libertarian.

[Dialup Llama]

>But perhaps it can be undermined, in the original sense of the term, of creating breaches in the walls by digging underneath and using fire to collapse the tunnel.

Like the Battle of Helm's Deep in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers?

[Cautor]

The winner of the next election will either be GWB or the Democrap candidate. Anyone who does anything to help the Democrap gain office is a short-sighted dumb-ass. In any case, from where I sit, I see no grumbling about Bush from my conservative friends. Then again, they're realists.

[thoughtomator]

It does highlight our current choice between the Tax party and the Spend party. To the average freedom-loving citizen, they may as well be called the Demorock and Grand Hard Place parties!

[Mulder]

Trying to predict elections is a waste of time, as typically those who are most voicerifous about their "predictions" have a vested interest such as discouraging others from running or advancing (or not advancing) a particular agenda.

For example those who have been saying "Bush in a landslide" for the last 2 years here, had an agenda of preventing a primary challenger from running, coupled with belitting the arguments of those who criticized Bush (why debate an issue with someone when you can just say "we don't need your vote"?). I can promise you that we will see these same expert prognosticators begging for folks to help out the campaign by summertime.

And those who have been saying that Dean was the only candidate who could defeat Bush had an agenda of getting Dean enough momentum so that he could gather enough endorsements to prevail in the primaries. We saw last week how well that worked.

In my experience of watching this stuff, those who spend their time talking about who is "electable" and who isn't, generally come out on the losing side. Those who spend their time on an agenda of limited government and are honest with the people (or at least create that percpetion) usually win.

[fatso]

illegal aliens

[kcar]

Best reason to vote for GWB is he's the sitting Commander in Chief during a time of war, a war that we must not lose. In that respect there's no one else I'd entrust to deal with it.

But that doesn't equate into long coattails. Most of the arguments I've read here are spot on. Love that expression "Dance with them that brung ya". Still time for that maybe. AWB would be a chance.

Hate to hear we now have to establish we aren't disruptors to express a conservative complaint about a less-than-conservative president.

[Centurion2000]

Here's a way that Bush is guaranteed to lose

Have him sign an extension or permanent assault weapons ban.

MILLIONS will stay home. So I hope Karl Rove is reading this.

[timydnuc]

GW can lose, if we sit on our butts.

Sure, I have my problems with GW. As a conservative, I don't like the federal budget, and I sure as hell don't like the administration's stand on immigration. But, we need a republican in the white house, and we need more republicans in the senate. If we don't correct the federal courts we will fall to the Marxists and we will lose our republic, and our liberty.

I will work for the president, and I will work for the republican party, and until such time as there is better, I will stand and deliver for these things.

Is this the lesser of two evils? I don't think so. In this party I can change things with a voice.

We have victory together, we die in parts, and if that happens the republic is gone. Think carefully about your vote, and your support this IS the defining moment of this republic.

Benjamin Franklin: "You have your Republic, if you can keep it". Well, I aim to keep it, and you should too. Don't go away, stay to keep our republic. I beg you. It's the only logical thing to do.

[Rays_Dad]

Ping for later read

[JustPiper]

Governor George Bush and Immigration-Search fairus.org