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PAGE 10A
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS W*dn—day, April 2», 2004
Opinion
Bush keeping lead
in polls despite
numerous blows
WASHINGTON—ApriI
should have been George W.
Bush's crudest month.
In April, the Sept. 11
Commission heard testimony
that accused the White House
of hindering the fight against
al Qaeda and terrorism in
order to conduct an unneces
sary war against Iraq. The
commission also heard testi
mony that members of the
administration were not really
interested in terrorism before
Sept. 11 and that key warnings
of the attack were ignored.
In April, the U.S. death toll
mounted dramatically in Iraq
as rebel forces led uprisings
across the country. The U.S.
media reported that key roads
to Baghdad had been cut and
the city was experiencing a
shortage of food for civilians
and ammunition for U.S.
troops.
In April. Bob Woodward's
Remaining
the American
people ... could
be enough.
new book was
released, con
taining explo
sive charges
that Bush
himself had
little faith in
the evidence
that Iraq har
bored
weapons of
mass destruction, that funds
were diverted without the
knowledge of Congress from
fighting the war in
Afghanistan to launch a war
against Iraq and that Saudi
Prince Bandar promised to
lower oil prices to help Bush
get re-elected this November.
In April. Bush held a shaky
press conference in w hich he
stated that before Sept. 11 he
actually believed that the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans
would protect the United
States from attack. "After 9-
11, the world changed for me,
and I think changed for the
country." he stated. "It
changed for me because, like
many, we assumed oceans
would protect us from harm.
And that's not the case. It's not
the reality of the 21st century .
Oceans don't protect us. They
don’t protect us from killers."
Which left the obvious (but
unasked) question:
Considering that on Feb. 26.
1993, foreign terrorists
exploded a bomb inside the
World Trade Center that left a
crater 22 feet wide and five
stories deep, killing six and
injuring more than 1,000. how
could anybody still believe in
2001 that our "oceans would
protect us from harm"?
One would think that an
April like this with events like
these to say nothing of high
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,Roger
Simon
gasoline prices and a continu
ing job slump would give
Bush's opponent. John Kerry, a
big lead in the polls.
Instead, polls show Bush
leading Kerry. In an ABC-
Washington Post poll. Bush
leads among registered voters
48 percent-43 percent (with
Ralph Nader at 6 percent), and
in a CNN-USA Today-Gallup
poll. Bush leads among likely
voters 50 percent-44 percent
(with Nader at 4 percent).
So what is going on here?
Possible explanations:
1. These polls don't mean
anything and are not measur
ing anvthing significant, espe-
cially consid
ering most
people are not
paying atten
tion to an elec
tion that does
not take place
until Nov. 2.
2. George
Bush is a lik
able, confident
leader untroubled by self
doubt who does well when the
subject is terrorism even if
the details tend to indict his
leadership because
Americans are reminded that
he is a wartime leader who
saw us through a terrible
attack and is now fighting a
war against terrorism (or so
the administration claims) in
Iraq.
3. Kerry has yet to hit his
stride as a campaigner and is
still unknown to most
Americans. In the end. this
might not matter. If it is true
that this election is about
George Bush alone and
whether the American people
want to re-hire him for another
four years, then if Bush
becomes unpopular enough
either through a worsening
war or a worsening economy
or both then Kerry’ would
win by default.
As Kerry said recently at a
S2S,(XX)-a-plate breakfast at the
21 Club in Manhattan. "Their
goal is to define me and make
me unacceptable. Our goal has
to be to keep that acceptability."
Remaining "acceptable" to
the American people is a very
modest goal. But it could be
enough.
Roger Simon is a national
ly syndicated columnist. He
can be e-mailed at Write Roger
@aol. com.
CARTOONISTS' VIEWS ON THE NEWS
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"Too bad the pollen count is
the one part of Spring you can count on!"
Partisan meanness disservice to all
I am trying to move across
a room a TV set that is roughly
the size of the Space Shuttle.
My wife Reny is shouting
orders and accurately pro
claiming in her stem German
accent why I would never suc
ceed in the furniture-moving
business. And Ed Setzler is
ringing the doorbell down
stairs.
Am 1 glad to see Ed, who
lives just across the street. Ed
can’t wait to tell me about his
plans to run for the
Legislature. I can’t wait to hear
them, and my dear wife can’t
wait for him to finish. The
world’s biggest bookcase is
next on her fumiture-to-move
list.
Before my conversation
with Ed ends, he has volun
teered to move the TV and
bookcase while I catch my
breath. In return, he receives a
promise of two votes in the
primary election plus Reny
and Bill’s enduring gratitude.
This is outdated "Ozzie and
Harriet’ -style campaigning. A
guy goes door to door intro
ducing himself and asking for
support. If there’s a chore to be
done, he pitches in. He
explains who he is and what he
believes in. (Ed’s a
Republican, a go-slow growth
advocate and a devout church
member. A native of Atlanta,
he spent nine years as an Army
officer, graduated from
Furman and has a wife, Tracie.
and three little-bitty kids.)
After he explains his political
Bill
Shipp
platform, he listens intently as
I tell him what 1 believe. He
thinks I’m kidding, but we get
along well anyway. I give him
a few bucks for his bid to
replace Rep. Roger Hines, R-
Kennesaw, who is running for
Congress.
I tell Ed that if he wins the
election, he may be saddened
at what he finds in Atlanta.
"The Legislature is not what it
seems," I tell him. He says he
knows. His father, a lifelong
Democrat, has already had "a
little talk" with him.
Dear reader. I relate this
small tale of neighborhood
politicking only because it
stands in such stark contrast to
the grand-scale political
maneuvers now conducted
across the state.
For example, as Ed and I
chatted about growth density.
Gov. Sonny Perdue called a
special session of the
Legislature to gain an upper
hand against Democrats who
control the House. Perdue’s
parallel, if not greater, intent
was to make a giant splash in
the newspapers and on TV to
prove that The Governor Is In
Charge.
The governor says he is
demanding the costly extra ses
sion to correct an "unbalanced”
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budget. Judging by some of
Perdue’s latest pronounce
ments and actions, more than
the budget is unbalanced here.
The 516.5 billion spending
plan is out of kilter because the
governor, in the last hour of a
prolonged regular legislative
session, refused to authorize a
judicial agency to administer
$57 million (most of it to be
raised from court fees) to run a
legal-defense fund for indi
gents.
No. he did not shred the
entire budget and order the
General Assembly to gather
again in Atlanta simply
because of money. The gover
nor wants to make the courts
subordinate to the governor’s
office in controlling fees paid
to lawyers for poor folks
accused of crimes.
Earlier this month, he pur
posely threw’ the Legislature
into chaos at the 11th hour
when lawmakers refused to
insert into the indigent-fund
bill the following statements:
"The governor shall have the
authority to review the budget
of the [judiciary ] council and
make recommendations in the
Governor's budget report. The
budget of the council may be
revised by the Governor."
Still chafing from a judicial
rebuff when he sought to take
over the duties of the attorney
general. Perdue apparently now
wants to take over the courts.
He has told the Legislature to
return to Atlanta for at least
five days to make the fixes he
demands. "One way or the
other, they are going to get this
done," says Gov. Sonny.
He issued this ultimatum
just as he completed a 15-town
swing around the state in a
motor home that at times
exceeded a nutty 80 miles per
hour on winding roads. Along
the way. he promised to
announce the names of 20 law
makers who had switched from
the Democratic to the
Republican Party. He. in fact,
announced just four.
This call for a special leg
islative session makes little
sense. The governor could cor
rect the comparatively small
discrepancy in the budget with
a scratch of his pen or wait
until the next regular session in
January.
Nosiree, not this fellow’. He
is making a public show of
political firepower just as if he
were fully engaged in a cam
paign for re-election. He might
be doing just that, even though
the contest is more than two
years away.
Such plainly partisan mean
ness serves no one well (not
even his own party) and makes
decent and dedicated folks shy
away from politics. Georgia
needs more guys willing to flex
their muscles to move bookcas
es instead of flexing their wills
to make headlines.
Bill Shipp's column
appears each Sunday and
Wednesday. His e-mail
address is bshipp@bellsouth.
net.