Bush: Candidates warning U.S. at risk will 'do well'

Bush calls himself 'strong asset.'' White House photo by Chris Greenberg

by Mark Silva

President Bush may be down in the polls, but he still has the upper hand on the war in Iraq -- as failing votes in the Senate showed again this week, reminders that Democratic leaders still lack the clout on Capitol Hill to alter the course of the war.

And, for alll his troubles with public opinion -- with his job approval running as low as 29 percent in the latest Reuters/Zogby poll and hovering in the low 30s in the Gallup Poll for over a year -- the president still maintains that the formula that was central to his reelection in 2004 will serve his party well at the polls in 2008.

Bush was asked at his press conference this week if he, personally, will prove to be an "asset or liability'' for Republicans seeking election next year. "Strong asset,'' he quickly replied, with a ready smile in recognition that he has a somewhat biased view.

"Look,'' the president said on the rebound at the podium of the White House press briefing room. "Candidates who go out and say that the United States is vulnerable to attack and we're going to make sure our professionals have the tools necessary to protect us are going to do well.

"Candidates who go out and say that helping these Iraqis realize the benefits of democracy are going to do well,'' he said. "Candidates who go out and say that it's very important for the United States to have clear principles when it comes to foreign policy, they'll do well.

"Candidates who say we're not going to raise your taxes will do well.''

Vice President Dick Cheney has voiced the same confidence. At a fundraising luncheon for Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) in Kansas City this week, Cheney said:

" While the President and I won't be on the ballot next year, we'll be active in elections because they matter a great deal to the country. The main advantage our party will have, we believe, will be a record of accomplishment, because the economy has been restored from the recession in the aftermath of 9/11, the tax package we passed.... has had a tremendous impact on the economy. We've now generated more than eight million new jobs in the last four years. The President's program has been a major success economically, even as we've gone through some difficult times from the standpoint of the global war on terror.

"We also think there's a great record to point to in terms of the fact that we've been able to go six years now without another attack on the homeland such as 9/11,'' Cheney said. "Nobody would have bet that was possible in the aftermath of 9/11. t's a direct result of some bold decisions by the president and the extraordinary efforts of a lot of very talented men and women in the United States military, our intelligence services, law enforcement, who've done a superb job.''

The vice president also was ready at that political appearance -- as the president proved ready in his press conference yesterday -- to pounce on the controversy that MoveOn.org had created with its newspaper ad the week before labeling Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S.and multinational forces in Iraq, as "General Betray Us."

Republicans have capitalized on the political backfire from this ad for several days now, with the president's remarks coming on a day on which the Senate adopted a resolution condemnding the ad -- a resolution which Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York opposed and on which Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois skipped the vote.

"It's bad enough when politicians turn their backs on a war they voted for and supported when it was popular,'' Cheney said. "But no one in politics, regardless of party, should hesitate to object when an American soldier at war is mocked and insulted.''

"I thought the ad was disgusting,'' Bush said.

"I felt like the ad was an attack not only on Gen. Petraeus, but on the U.S. military,'' the president said. "And I was disappointed that not more leaders in the Democrat Party spoke out strongly against that kind of ad.

"And that leads me to come to this conclusion: That most Democrats are afraid of irritating a left-wing group like MoveOn.org -- or more afraid of irritating them than they are of irritating the United States military,'' Bush said. "That was a sorry deal.''

Proof, all in all, that the president places deep faith in the proposition that supporting the military makes for a more powerful public appeal than reining in its mission in Iraq.