« South African Trade Detours United States | Main | George Bush, the Europeans and the Middle-East »

March 30, 2005

A powerless beginnig for Bush II ?

By Pierre Langlais

The major threat for George W. Bush’s popularity could come from inside the USA. That’s what the French daily Le Monde is advancing in an article about Bush’s failure on the Social Security reform.
This reform, announced as the most important one of the second mandat, is about to be postponed to next year, said Bill Frist, leader of the Republicans at the Senat.
After his (quite) successfull visit to Europe, things seemed to work well for the re-elected president, at least within the US boundaries.

« It has been a long time since Republicans have been that powerful. Since the re-election of the President in November 2004, they control the White House and enjoy a comfortable majority in both of the houses. »

Writes Eric Leser, underlining this paradox : « It is inside of his own party that George Bush is unable to convince [about this reform] »
There is two major reasons for this almost certain defeat in domestic policy: First, a large part of the Republican senators are already thinking about the next elections, next year, and even about the presidential election in 2008. Those don’t want to take any risky positions. Then, the opposition to this reform received support from unions like the AFL-CIO and from the very powerful American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), which has 35 millions members. The retired people have such an important place in the Republican electorate that the point of view of the AARP changed everything for most of the senators.
This defeat could be, for Le Monde, the end of

« the great ambitions, declared at the end of last year in the euphoria of the re-election, to take down the welfare state and the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. »

This « snub » comes in the middle of bad circumstances for Bush. Indeed, a CBS News poll revealed last week that 82 % of the Americans disagree with the position of the Congress and the White House on the Terri Schiavo case. A major part of the country is in favor of the « euthanasia » for this 41 year old woman, who has been in coma for more than 15 years while Bush helped pass a special law to hold Mrs. Schiavo in a stable situation.
At the same time, the opening of a nature reserve in Alaska to oil drilling, and the rise of the price of gas has brought the President to his lowest rate of popularity ever, with only 45% of favorable opinion, according to a Gallup poll for USA Today and CNN.
And Eric Leser concludes with the question:

“Many American presidents knew difficult second mandates: Will George Bush be able to avoid a similar destiny?”

Posted March 30, 2005 11:59 AM

Comments

Post a comment