Bill Schneider
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com -- THE 2004 campaign is already underway.
That's right -- 2004, not 2002. Because we just heard the first debate, one between Senate majority leader Tom Daschle and President George W. Bush. At issue? The economy, stupid. And it had echoes of the past -- Reaganomics versus Clintonomics.
Right now, Daschle is the nation's alpha-Democrat. He was propelled into prominence by two unlikely events last year. The first was in May, when Sen. Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party and made Daschle Senate majority leader.
The second came in October, when Daschle became the target of an anthrax attack. The attack gave Daschle vast publicity and enhanced his stature as a figure of importance.
January is supposed to be the run-up to the President's State of the Union speech. It's when the President leaks new policy ideas and monopolizes the media spotlight. Daschle is challenging President Bush for that spotlight. He's giving Democrats an agenda they can rally around.
It's President Clinton's agenda. Clinton converted the Democratic Party to a new faith -- fiscal responsibility. ``By embracing fiscal discipline . . . '' Daschle said on Jan. 4, ``we helped lay a foundation for a new growth economy.'' Daschle consulted with President Clinton before his speech, but he never mentioned Clinton in his remarks -- though he did praise two Clinton treasury secretaries, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers. The Daschle agenda is Clintonism without Clinton.
Under President Bush, Daschle said, we got ``the most dramatic fiscal deterioration in the nation's history.'' Daschle attacked Bush's $1.35 trillion tax cut as fiscally irresponsible, but he did not talk about repealing it or even delaying it. He also endorsed free trade -- another Clinton legacy -- but with more assistance for workers hurt by trade deals.
Basically, Daschle criticized Bush's policies for not providing a big enough economic stimulus in the short term, while creating deficits and raising interest rates in the long term.'' What exactly was Daschle's alternative? ``Let me be clear,'' he said the next day.
``I proposed short-term tax cuts to create jobs and generate investment and long-term fiscal discipline, not tax increases.'' Fiscal discipline without tax increases -- what could that be? Spending cuts? The majority leader didn't mention any.
Nor did he mention the fact that Clinton's fiscal discipline started out with a tax hike in 1993. One for which his party paid a steep price in the 1994 midterm.
Instead, Daschle offered this challenge: ``It is time they explain to the American people what they intend to do about the hole they dug.'' That is dangerously close to Walter Mondale's formulation in his 1984 convention speech: ``President Reagan will raise your taxes. So will I. He won't tell you. I just did.''
Bush responded like a true Reaganite, telling an audience in California, ``Not over my dead body will they raise your taxes.'' That particular formulation was dangerously close to his father's 1988 convention pledge: ``Read my lips. No new taxes.'' So a few hours later in Oregon, the President softened the tone: ``The answer for those who want to raise our taxes is no.''
Republicans think Daschle has a devious plan. He stands four-square with President Bush on the war and lambasts the President on the economy. What's devious about that? It's the way most Democrats feel. President Bush came close to accusing Daschle of disloyalty when he said in California, ``We ought not to revert to the old ways that used to dominate Washington, D.C. The old way is, what's more important, my country or my political party?''
The White House even re-labeled its ``economic stimulus'' plan an ``economic security'' plan, to try to place it in the realm above politics.
What Daschle is doing is not disloyalty. It's partisanship -- on an issue where partisanship has always been the rule. Democrats are trying to turn the political clock back to September 10, when they had President Bush on the ropes. Congress and the President had just come back from summer vacation. The economy was faltering. The surplus was disappearing.
Democrats were relishing the prospect of seeing President Bush break open the lockbox. And thereby break his pledge -- just like his father. The President seemed to be boxed in. How could he get out?
On Sept. 6, President Bush made this statement: ``I have repeatedly said the only time to use social security money is in times of war, times of recession or times of severe emergency.'' Bingo! War. Recession. Emergency. No more lockbox.
Now Democrats are looking for a second chance. Just before September 11, the economy had become the number one issue. In the past month, the economy has once again become the number one issue, outranking concern over terrorism by 35 to 29 percent in the December Gallup poll. Democrats want the old Bush back. The Bush who failed to project the image of a commanding leader. The Bush whose domestic policies were intensely controversial.
Bush's domestic policies are still intensely controversial -- he barely got his trade promotion authority through Congress last month. But the President's image as a leader has been transformed. His job approval rating stands at 86 percent -- 76 percent among Democrats, up almost 50 points since early September.
Can Democrats put President Bush in the same box again, just as they did after Labor
Day? The box is the same: a bad economy, a serious budget crunch, unpopular policies. But
it's an entirely different President
To comment on JWR contributor William Schneider's column, please click here.
01/09/02: Three 'War Stars' are born
01/04/02: California cluelessness?
12/17/01: Congress' life or death issue
11/27/01: Our reinvigorated spendthrift Congress
11/27/01: Out of War, Peace?
11/14/01: The other war --- the one for public opinion
11/09/01: The mayor of New Yawk and the King of the World
11/07/01: An insurance policy on America
11/02/01: A nation of defiant optimists
10/30/01: Has Bush has flip-flopped on 'nation-building'?
10/23/01: The new political world
10/16/01: The return of big government
10/08/01: On political war
10/01/01: The "born-again" president
09/25/01: Making America squirm
09/14/01: The American spirit will not wane
09/10/01: What Dubya knows about the budget
08/13/01: Japan becomes the latest country to see its politics become personalized
08/09/01: Bush backers out to remake prez yet again
07/30/01: Will the GOP's mandate of 1994 finally runs out?
07/23/01: Both political parties are full of ....
07/16/01: Empowered moderate Republicans
07/09/01: As goes New Jersey, so goes the nation?
07/02/01: Dubya: Like father, like son?
06/15/01: The new soccer moms
06/05/01: Deals or deadlock?
05/29/01: The War Between the States is heating up again
05/21/01: The answer is men
05/10/01: Bush v. Carter?
