The Fear Monster Bites Back

Karl Rove must be burning the midnight oil these days. After years of burnishing the image of George Bush as the person who would protect Americans, recent events in Iraq and in Washington must be causing Rove to come up with a new playbook to replace the Fear and Security one he has used too long.

In mid-January Rove outlined his "view" of the differences between Republicans and Democrats saying "At the core, we are dealing with two parties that have fundamentally different views on national security," Rove said. "Republicans have a post-9/11 worldview and many Democrats have a pre-9/11 worldview. That doesn't make them unpatriotic -- not at all. But it does make them wrong -- deeply and profoundly and consistently wrong."

Despite this comment being ridiculous to start with (Democrats were the one who helped push for the Department of Homeland Security while Bush and the GOP took the U.S. into a war that has destabilized the Middle East), Rove's comments were more about appearance rather than reality.

Rove probably knew he was being dishonest but his goal was to outline how the GOP would portray itself and Democrats, not how they actually were. And based on history he had every reason to be confident. Afterall, despite numerous news reports that showed that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 the average the average viewer of FOX News was significantly more likely to have misperceptions than someone who got their news from NPR.

The problem for Democrats is that too often people believe what they want to believe, which was the company line the GOP was pushing, rather than reality.

Today the tables have turned as events based on reality and appearance are taking over the news. With Iraq moving toward civil war and the news that the administration is proposing a UAE government firm take over major operations at six U.S. ports, more Americans are starting to question the Administration.

As Pat Buchanan said on the recent McLaughlin Group "When Bubba in Mississippi woke up and found out Arab sheiks are taking control of our eastern ports, it was all over for Bush."

For those who wanted to take a thoughtful and nuanced approach to the port deal, perhaps it was fine, but after being bludgeoned for years for acting based on thinking rather than emotions is it any wonder why Democrats are opposing Bush on this, and they may have a good case. One can only image the ad Karl Rove would have made against a President John Kerry if he had done EXACTLY what Bush had done.

So the problem for the Bushies is how to talk about security without having people think about the disaster in Iraq and Arabs running our ports. The old conservative line "be afraid, be very afraid" has come back bite the administration.

Heck of a job Bushie!