Just what the hell is "political capital" anyway?????

[tuvor]

Seriously, is this some new thing bush just made up (with karl's help, of course)?

I've never heard of such a thing, let alone "spending" it.

[marew]

1. It means screw the rest of us!

[prodigal_green]

2. political capital is what the Chimp WASTED

after 9/11.

The second honeymoon won't last and he knows it.

He could have been a force for progress (ha ha ha ha ha), but instead decided to cynically advance his neo-con fundamentalist fantasies.

[flowomo]

3. a very old phrase.... means you can do some risky things and

get away with them because you have extra support to burn.

[annabanana]

4. I guess he thinks he "earned" it....

By making appearances in front of all those phoney hand picked crowds of the pre-screened. (That was "hard work")

[BlueEyedSon]

5. It means extreme party discipline + majority in both houses.

[flowomo]

6. in contrast. Daschle had too little political capital to spend to be

an effective Dem leader. He had to always watch his back in his home state. And obviously he spent too much of the little he had.

[theboss]

11. Precisely, Daschle had no goodwill with his voters back home

So he could not go against their wishes on anything and remain electable.

[flowomo]

12. there's a lesson there: leaders have to come from safe states....

like maybe Schumer from NY. Whay wasn't he in the mix?

[theboss]

13. Probably because the Repubs despise him

Minority leader has to be able to work with the majority a little bit or no one's bills get passed, especially in Appropriations.

[flowomo]

21. can you think of anyone better than Reid?

[theboss]

22. Dodd would have been okay

Someone like Bauygh is too far to the right. Rockefeller maybe. Reid is a lot like Hastert; he won't be easy to turn into a caricature.

[Jawja]

7. The politcal capital he says

he "earned" (cough), is a House and Senate controlled by the GOP and a Supreme Court in his pocket.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

8. "Payback"...Bush fellated by Religious Right, he fellates in return

Sick world we live in. The religious right is CLAIMING credit for putting this sick motherfu**r back in office. He's just paying them back.

[theboss]

9. It's a common concept in politics

"Political capital" is essentially the goodwill a politician can spend to accomplish his goals.

The most recent example is Bush campaigning for Specter in the primaries. Bush had the overwhelming support of his base. Specter was the scourge of the base; they wanted him out. Bush used his goodwill with the base to assist Specter. In doing so, Bush pissed off his base a little bit, but he had enough "political capital" that it did not hurt him.

The classic example is Lyndon Johnson and the civil rights act. Johnson had tremendous political capital in the Congress. And he used every last cent of it to get the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed.

[fleabert]

10. I hate that man.

Jon Stewart responded to this last night, he said something like;

Capital? You mean what you didn't have in 2000 but spent anyway? I think you still owe on what you used!

Much funnier and succinct when he said it...I will look for a transcript...

five min later...haven't found one yet, and I gotta go, sorry. I will do my best when I get back.

[tuvor]

18. Actually I saw that last night.

You're pretty much verbatim, I think.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

[dogman]

14. If it's devalued like he's done the dollar

less all the time.

[childslibrarian]

15. It quite simply means Screw You

the 48% or so (according to Diebold) who didn't vote for him.
He's all about revenge.

[SammyWinstonJack]

16. Revenge

A bush family trait.

[NV Whino]

17. our sons and daughters

and he's going to spend them in Iraq.

[Snotcicles]

19. If he is counting votes as capital

is he subtracting Kerry votes as debt?
If so he ends up with jack shit.

This election was fixed. and thats that.

[cally]

20. It's a concept taught in Public Policy schools

Essentially, each politician and interest group uses political capital to push their agenda. The more support, money, and media attention they have, the more capital they have. You use some up when you push controversial issues. It's the concept that you only can push so much without returning favors.

[Maddy McCall]

23. Please read French philosopher Pierre Bordieu's theories on this...

After all, he's the one who invented the term. THE greatest 20th century philosopher, bar none.

Bordieuian theory is taught in every anthropological theory class across the US. Political capital is not a new thing.