April 10, 2005
GIVE IT A GREEN SPIN AND WIN:
Bush's Energy Plan—Start Talking (Newsweek, April 18, 2004)
Two numbers have dominated White House discussions about the president's domestic agenda in recent days: rising gas prices and the president's falling approval ratings. While much of Washington has been trying to forecast the political impact of the Terri Schiavo case and the struggle to overhaul Social Security, Bush's aides maintain there is a pocketbook explanation for the downward slide in the president's polls. "Schiavo didn't drop the numbers," says RNC senior adviser Matthew Dowd, who was Bush's top strategist in last year's campaign. "It's gas prices primarily." Two polls last week gave Bush just 41 percent approval on his handling of the economy and an overall approval rating of 48 percent. Whether their concern is political or economic, Bush's advisers are looking for a way out. "They are very concerned," says one administration official.While his aides concede there is little they can do to shift prices quickly, Bush has been grappling with the issue in recent internal discussions, including his cabinet meeting last week. Now White House officials tell NEWSWEEK that Bush will become increasingly vocal in public about fuel costs, seizing on the public concern to push ahead with his long-stalled energy bill, as well as delivering speeches on energy issues, including new technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells and cleaner coal. "If the Congress had acted three years ago, some of the policies we put forward could have had an impact today," says one senior Bush aide. The Department of Energy predicted last week that gas prices will reach a peak monthly average of $2.35 per gallon in May, around the time the legislative battles should be in full swing. "With the price of gasoline where it is, that ought to be enough this time to cause people to get moving on the bill," Bush told reporters on Air Force One as he returned from Rome last week.
Prices help to create a fake atmosphere of crisis, but the program should be sold as an environmental/moral imperative. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 10, 2005 1:56 PM
As an oil company man, Bush is very vulnerable on gas prices. They can be portrayed as the result of his desire to please his putative friends back in Texas. Again, his father's dreary record does not help him here.
What he should do is couch fuel economy as a national security issue. He should make it a mandate that no new vehicle be sold in the US that does not get 40 mpg. This would reduce American oil consumption by approximately 20%, ending our need for any oil from outside the hemisphere. When you buy an SUV, every time you fill up your tank, you are subsidizing al-Qaeda.
Posted by: bart at April 10, 2005 2:05 PMAgree with Bart on everything but the mandate. There are a number of softer initiatives that could be advanced to show he is serious about the issue. If he loses on this one kiss goodbye to the Independents, centrists and those just to their right in 06/08. This will become an issue of security and patriotism.
Posted by: Genecis at April 11, 2005 12:45 PM