Abstract

Shh, Don't Tell the Swing Voters

The White House, the Bush campaign and Republicans are spending hundreds of millions of dollars this year to convince swing voters that George W. Bush is a decisive, no-nonsense fellow who does what's best for the nation. Below is a partial list--much shorter than it could be--of matters Bush's handlers would prefer swing voters not know. Bush doesn't understand the basics of 9/11. Bush is not taking all possible measures to protect the nation. Bush said repeatedly that Al Qaeda had attacked the United States because "they hate our freedoms." But this was a comic-book rendition of the conflict at hand, and it ignored a slew of geopolitical realities and Osama bin Laden's actual (and perverse) motivations. How many swing voters realize that when they fly they are sitting above commercial cargo that has not been inspected, thanks in part to Bush? Bush never bothered to look at the intelligence before launching the Iraq war. In a background briefing last summer, White House aides conceded that Bush had never read the ninety-page National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq's WMDs. Bush couldn't cite evidence to support his claim that Saddam was in league with Al Qaeda. Bush has been doubly dishonest in endangering the nation's fiscal security. Bush failed to keep his 2000 promise about tax cuts. Still, Bush has claimed his tax cuts have helped improve the economy and led to the creation of 1.5 million jobs (even though more than 2.5 million jobs have been lost during his presidency).