Why the 'Capital' Checks Won't Clear

It seems George Bush has exhausted his political capital.

You might remember in the wake of his presidential election victory, President Bush held a news conference where he discussed his new mandate.

“I earned political capital, and I intend to spend it,” proclaimed the newly-reelected president.

President Bush then got out his executive check book and presidential pen and proceeded to spend his capital on Social Security, judicial nominees, and an energy policy, to name a few items on his shopping list.

He should have confirmed the balance in his political capital account, because it seems President Bush’s love bank didn’t have as big a deposit as he thought.

According to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll, Americans are rejecting the president’s proposals, and his standing is at an all time low.

The numbers tell a story few could have predicted. This week’s Washington Post-ABC News poll put the president’s overall job approval score at 47 percent — matching the lowest score of his 51 months in office. In the survey highly negative ratings outnumbered the very positive 3-to-2.

On the issues, President Bush was also hurting. His signature proposal, Social Security, has not excited most Americans in a way that the administration would have liked. Only three in 10 respondents approved of the job the president is doing on Social Security, and the momentum is moving in the wrong direction. In mid-March, 56 percent favored private accounts. Now that number is down to 45 percent, an 11 percent plunge.

If things weren’t bad enough, it seems the Republican Party has also been siphoning funds from the political capital account. Tom Delay’s ethics troubles, the party’s decision to change the ethics rules, and the midnight intervention in the Terry Schiavo situation, all contributed to the account depletion.

That’s assuming there was that much capital to begin with.

What if the president really didn’t have political capital after the election? It’s not like he hasn’t been wrong about anything before.

During the election, the president ran on John Kerry’s record. His basic message was “at least I’m not that guy.”

That guy, John Kerry, proved indecisive, impersonal, and clueless. It was easy to paint a caricature of him. Let’s face it, John Kerry turned off or scared many Americans, and for the ones he didn’t, Theresa was there to pick up the slack.

So Americans agreed. “You’re right, we don’t want that guy.”

To win by default doesn’t necessarily endow the victor with spoils, however.

In fact, most Americans had no clue what the president’s new agenda would be, since he ran largely on Terrorism. Even at the Inauguration, President Bush talked about spreading democracy, not reforming Social Security.

So when the president attempted to enact his bold agenda, he ran into a couple problems:

1) No one had actually voted for that agenda in the last election.

2) His good will was confined to Terrorism and to not being John Kerry.

When the economy started eclipsing terrorism in the minds of most Americans, and he didn’t have Sen. Kerry to kick around any more, he learned the harsh truth:

Dear Mr. Bush, we regret to inform you that the check you presented to your Political Capital account is being returned due to insufficient funds.

Damn.

The terrorism high

For George Bush, it’s looking like 2001 all over again — the pre-9/11 2001.

In his first term, President Bush was off to an awful start. Down in the polls, pushing an unpopular agenda, dodging charges that he was the clueless puppet of the vice president.

Then a terrorism attack and a bullhorn changed everything. You know the cliché: September 11, 2001 changed everything. And for George Bush it did. It gave him an issue, a cause, and a reason to be. He assembled both houses of Congress and gave an electrifying speech to the nation. At that moment, he was presidential.

President Bush and the country were on a terrorism high. We were united in a common tragedy against a common enemy. The flag was in vogue. Congress was singing in unison. But it is hard to sustain that level of energy indefinitely, and fatigue began to set in.

Anyone who works with addicts will tell you, after the first “hit,” users spend their lives chasing the euphoria of that first high.

Americans have notoriously short memories, so something else had to sustain the terrorism high that buoyed the president. The answer: the Global War on Terrorism — first stop Afghanistan. After that, Iraq. Then there was the high drama of the election, which provided the perfect opportunity to remind us all about the evils of terrorism and the perils of retreat.

Now with the economy sinking, the high is wearing off, and Americans are looking at the president with sober eyes. It is starting to feel like 2001 all over again.

Forget rehab. Brace yourself for the next hit.