George W Bush Hovers on the Brink of Political Capital Deficit
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
In George W Bush’s first press conference after the election, he told reporters, “I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it. It is my style." Since then, Bush has gone to outline the programs on which he intends to spend this capital: immigration reform, intelligence reform, national security reform, tax reform, clean coal technology, reducing federal spending, appointing conservative Supreme Court nominees, passing the Central American Free Trade Agreement, and obtaining peace in the Middle East.
Without a final 3 point shot from Bin-Laden, the election would have probably gone into overtime
While Bush might not realize this, he did not win by an overwhelming margin. His campaign style was more reminiscent of the Chicago Bulls when Michael Jordan was at the top of his game. Without a final 3 point shot from Bin-Laden, the election would have probably gone into overtime. But let’s stop these sickening and visually disturbing sports analogies, and address the issues.
If we just look at one of the goals, obtaining peace in the Middle East, this would take almost one thousand times the political capital that Bush had. That doesn’t even take into account the rise in the price due to the war. Or political capital economists have been working around the clock, and they think that Bush might have enough capital to ensure on time elections in Iraq. The idea that Bush might have enough political capital to settle the Palestinian problem, or get Turkey to step down from their opposition of a Kurdish state is ludicrous.
American political capital has been trading weakly against foreign political currencies
Another setback to Bush’s store of political capital came with his recent visit to Canada. Bush was anticipating that the trip would not set him back a huge amount of capital, as usually exchange rates highly favor American political capital. In actuality, due to a poor perception of American government in the world, the American political capital has been trading weakly against foreign political currencies. A simple serving of french fries with gravy could burn through the President’s win in Guam. And banner in Halifax from a coalition of 30 churches proclaiming “He's not welcome, eh!”, cost the President the entire political capital from East Central Wyoming.
