Bush Looks to the Environment to Sway Swing Vote

[realFedUp]

(I nearly choked on my cereal reading this headline...)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-enviro21aug21,1,3730145.story

Bush Looks to the Environment to Sway Swing Vote
The issue doesn't loom large, but it can help him in a close election, experts say.

By Maura Reynolds
Times Staff Writer

August 21, 2003

As next year's campaign approaches, it may seem odd for the president to spend so much time on what opinion surveys suggest is a marginal concern for most voters; indeed, an Andres McKenna Research poll last month found that only 5% of respondents consider the environment their "most important" issue. But, in fact, the picturesque visits are part of a careful, two-part electoral strategy.

Republican and Democratic strategists say the electorate has become more polarized since Bush became president. As a result, the election could be decided by the small number of "swing" voters who generally see themselves as moderates.

So the first part of the strategy is to increase Bush's appeal to those all-important voters. If Democratic candidates manage to paint Bush as an extreme anti-environmentalist, moderates may balk at supporting him. "They are making an effort to make him less odious in the eyes of people who might not be members of Friends of the Earth but who have a citizen's regard for the environment," said Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University. "It's an effort to render less toxic an issue that could be troublesome for swing voters. And if the election turns out to be close, a single percentage point could be decisive — as we saw in 2000."

continued

[hatrack]

1. Yeah, lots f*****g luck on this one, Chimpy

Boy, there's nothing like a couple of dumbass photo-ops to wipe away the reality of three years of anti-environmental legislation and greenwashed bullshit.

[alcuno]

2. That is an incredible headline.

It makes you wonder who came up with that story idea in the first place.

[realFedUp]

3. ya have to wonder....

it's a good time to write a letter to the editor...
any Greens have some time on their hands?

[email protected]

[blindpig]

4. the incredible contempt of these swine

for the american people is breathtaking. Only the most addled dipshit could buy into that crap. the LCV report card will make short work of this nonsense.
for a fine read on the contempt of * check out fraywatch at slate. GEOFF does a fine job explaining "Why I Hate George Bush".
DK'04

[Chango]

5. Watch for a bunch of photo-ops in front of trees.

The Bushies actually believe that standing in front of trees suffices for a policy - like being photographed reading in classrooms suffices for education policy and being photographed with black children suffices for civil rights policy. Why not? It worked before!

[hatrack]

6. Coincidentally, don't know if you saw this yesterday . . .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/03/08/20_green.html

[realFedUp]

11. Thank God this was satire...

Wowed by Bush PR Blitz, Green Groups Rush to Endorse Adminstration Policies
August 20, 2003
Satire by David Albrecht

:-)

[Starpass]

7. Both get "use to it" and "relax"

Be prepared to put your rubber boots on and wade through shit up to your armpits for the next 12 months because Bush will be going into his "I'm a caring, compassionate, person who just loves every hair on the head of every American and would do anything for my beloved people". In fact, it was literally announced a month ago that he will be hitting all these issues (environment, women, blacks)-- who he will disembowl if re-elected (same shit as the way he campaigned in '00). But on the environment, relax. His minions not only don't give a shit about the environment, it would drive them nuts if he starts hugging trees (better watch it George). AND those who care about the environment to the point where it is a BIG issue for them in elections, know this guy is a lying sack of shit who has launched an outright attack to reverse decades of environmental laws. I'll bet when he gives those speeches, they will (as usual) keep any real environmentalists a zillion miles away from him so that no one hears the sound of "booing".

[StClone]

8. Ah yes, the "Compassionate Conservationist"

Or, "Compassionate Environmentalist." Take the extreme opposite of any moniker Bush applies to things and multiply the evil by 100 and you got the gist of the true nature of his aim.

[rock]

9. Chimpy McSnortalot and the environment

Now that's funny!

[maggrwaggr]

10. "Bush Hopes Environmentalists are Really Stupid Swing Voters"

What a fucking idiot. This just proves how stupid he is.

[realFedUp]

12. that's one way of putting it.

thanks.

[catzies]

14. Change "Hopes" to "Bets" and it's perfect.

Because after all it is a carefully crafted ploy by Karl Rove.

[MostlyBlackCat2]

13. wiping coffee off my monitor

oh chimpy, you ARE good for a laugh or two, aren't ya.
now, get back to your ranch.

[Boreas]

15. LOL Cat

Yeah, the more time he spends with a shovel in his hands the better for us.

[Felix Mala]

16. That Sound

The whistling you hear ain't coming from the trees!!!

[Lisa]

17. swing it away from him!

If trees could vote, he would be one sorry Bush.

Oops -- he IS one sorry Bush. My bad!



I had to laugh at that last sentence in the excerpt that realFedUp posted .... "a single percentage point could be decisive" -- not as much as one vote on the Supreme Court, evidently.

[realFedUp]

18. amen.

seems like 5 people are making major
decisions for the rest of us....

[tom_paine]

19. An Orwellian headline for Orwellian Times

Comrade Napoleon looks to windmill to Save Animal Farm...

[AntiCoup2K4]

20. And in today's other headlines....

"David Duke named as new chair of the NAACP"

"Osama Bin Laden found teaching in a Tel Aviv synagogue"

"Ken Starr asks America to forgive him for his obsession with Clinton's penis"

[Zorro]

21. Well the Greens voted for Bush in the last election

Guess he might as well make an outright appeal to them.

Perhaps he thinks that being named "Bush" gives him an advantage with the mentally challenged environmentalist voting bloc.

[dansolo]

22. Yeah, help whoever is running against him

The Democrats don't need to portray him as anti-environmental. His record speaks for itself.