Before Sunday's events, I thought that Bush would have an extremely tough time getting re-elected next year, but now the tide might be turning. You know that Bush's camp will go hard with "The President that brought down Saddam", but will the public go along with it?
Still too early to tell, IMHO. Alot can happen in the next 11 months. If Saddam's capture would have occurred during Summer or early Fall, I would have said Bush's reelection was a shoe-in.
this PLUS all the indications that the economy will do well this year...imho...make bush pretty hard to beat. particularly when you're going to run a guy against him like dean. just my two cents.
i hope not, but you never know, maybe he is mre popular now then before last election, and thistime he will win
I think it certainly is an enormous plus in the Bush camp. The democrats can no longer use their applause line of "Where is Saddam???". One of the democrats' biggest strengths has been to criticize Bush for his treatment of Iraq, and capturing Saddam is concrete evidence of progress. This has already led to the capture of important insurgents and should go a long way to reduce the violence going on there now. The economy is improving and the tide in Iraq is now turning. I think things look good for W.
This will give Bush a boost. But there's too much time, and when or if this still doesn't turn up any WMD, Bush will be back where he started. I just hope we can end this Iraq business sooner and get back to fighting terrorism.
one of the commentators on CNN yesterday said Bush was one good day with WMD away from locking up the next election. shows you how funny politics is.
While I do believe that capturing Saddam will help in the process of creating an Iraq that could be a responsible world member, it still does not justify this war in the least. Progress is being made in the unjustifiable war that was started by Bush and company lying to us to drum up our support. I, for one, don't recall ever asking the question you point out above because it never mattered to me. What mattered to me was the deliberate manipulation of "intelligence" that ended up causing the public to support the war.
WMDs will have a larger positive effect if found, then they will a negative effect if not found. Already, the american public in general doesn't give a crap of WMDs are found or not and what that means about the way things were handled.
This is good for Bush in the sense that an objective of this mission was achieved. However, it is bad for Bush because the main focus will now become the rebuilding of Iraq and the capture of Osama bin Laden. If no headway is made in either case, Bush will still have a hard time getting reelected. They can beat that "We got Saddam" drum all they want, but the fact is that the ends don't justify the means. The party lines are still as clear as ever on this issue. A few moderate, passive voters might feel that Bush is a little more compotent than he was before (credit which should go to the U.S. military, actually) but in the long run it won't mean a lot. We're just getting started.
"Where is OBL?" is a more pertinent question since he is actually a target in the War on Terror (tm). Come November 2004 (middle of Ramadan, right?), I think capturing Saddam will not be on the voters minds viz-a-viz the daily US soldier deaths in Iraq (which peversely favors GWB politically).
I will point out AGAIN that having a murderous tyrant as the leader of a country does not in general justify military actions against that country. If it did, then there is STILL a HUGE list of countries that we still need to invade. Are you saying that we need to start planning for THOSE wars? Besides, the vast majority of the Iraqi people's "suffering" due to Saddam was in the '80s, when the US was supporting his regime. I will not argue that Iraq will be better off without Saddam, but if we start wars just because the people in that country MIGHT be a bit better off with a new leader, we will be fighting the world's wars from here on out. This war has set a VERY dangerous precedent and the ripples from it will be felt for decades. I have much more hope for the Iraqi people now that Saddam has been caught and I pray that they are able to create a responsible government. At the same time, in my mind nothing but finding LARGE stockpiles of WMDs will justify this war.
Exactly. As happy as I am that we have captured a ruthless dictator and once and for all ended his terror, the guy who's directly responsible for the 9/11 tragedy is still at large. The War on Terror can't be considered a success in many people's eyes unless OBL is caught. As far as Bush's re-election, I'd say this definitely helps, but like RMTex stated, a lot can happen in 11 months. More terrorist attacks could occur, OBL could go uncaught for the third straight year, no WMD are found, the economic recovery may not last, some unforeseen scandal could rock the White House, who knows. I hope none of those things happen, but it's way too early to tell.
The critical factor for GWB's re-election is the economy. Even an improved economy may not save him. The US job market is 2.4 million jobs in the red right now and likely still be in the red next November. The Dems should have no trouble equating GWB's single note domestic policy (ie tax cuts) with negative job growth. I do not see how GWB can really side step this issue.
I'd like to think the economy is the key #1 issue. Somehow I think it won't be in this paranoid new political culture. It's a different election from the 1992 campaign which ousted Bush One.. mainly because of 9/11 The American public is easily scared and lead astray, as we've seen over the past 3 years.. You might be right though, or at least I hope domestic issues come first..
