Focus on Bush ratings puzzling
The Oh Really Factor
By Maurice O. Ndole
The Collegian
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I never knew there would come a time when I would agree with conservative bomb-thrower Anne Coulter.
But I do.
In a debate on the O’Reilly Factor with Bill O’Reilly, Coulter said she was not bothered with Bush’s low ratings because Bush is not the future of Republican Party.
She must have read my mind.
Coulter and I think the media and Democrats’ obsession about President Bush’s low job-approval rating is at least misplaced if not laughable.
Frankly, why would Democrats (or anybody for that matter) be concerned about Bush’s job-approval ratings? The man is not running for another term.
 As far as I’m concerned the president can decide to chill at his Crawford Ranch and his status would not change.
I mean, by winning a second term he took care of the biggest challenge in his political career.
Democrats should do more than just sit on the sidelines to celebrate Bush’s low ratings. They should find ways of making sure they don’t get toyed with the way Bush did when making a case for the war in Iraq.
In fact, Democrats should take the blame for most of the problems the nation is experiencing because they did not play their role as an opposition party well.
The role of the opposition party is to keep the government in check, not to go along with all the questionable decisions the government makes.
The problem with the Democrats is they don’t have guts. They just cannot dare take calculated political risks against the GOP. They’d rather sit and watch conservatives tear each other apart and recover without lifting a finger.
During the last elections, the Democrats lost an opportunity to defeat Bush, who was vulnerable on many issues such as the war in Iraq, healthcare policies and his binge tax cut policy that only benefits the wealthy.
I remember almost throwing up when Senator John Kerry, Democrats’ bad choice for a presidential candidate, missed an opportunity to distinguish himself from Bush when new information about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq surfaced.
Responding to questions from the press, Kerry said he still would have supported the war despite information that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.
The goof must have sent a tsunami of glee through the Republican camp. It showed there was no difference between Bush and Kerry, so why elect Kerry?
It is the fear to distinguish themselves from the Republican Party that is costing Democrats in elections.
They seem to have resorted to letting nature play the role of the opposition party.
Democrats cannot even claim credit for the low job-approval ratings Bush is experiencing now. Those problems can be attributed to the CIA leak indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the bad news from Iraq and Hurricane Katrina.
By focusing on Bush’s job-approval ratings, the Democrats are missing out on what the real focus should be — coming up with solutions to the problems in Iraq and strategies for winning elections.
The problem for Democrats is not that people love Republicans so much. The problem is Democrats seem incapable of providing an acceptable alternative to Bush’s policies.
Unless Democrats are looking to impeach the president and kick him out of office before the end of his term, the conversation about his job-approval rating is pointless.
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