E.J. Dionne: Political changes Bush didn't want

[question everything]

E.J. DIONNE JR. THE WASHINGTON POST
Political changes Bush didn't want

May 16, 2006

It was in the middle of a morning question-and-answer session yesterday after a speech defending President Bush's economic record that Karl Rove let drop a phrase that told us everything.

Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute, Rove started talking about “game-changers,” a nice wonky term to throw around at a leading conservative think tank. The idea is that certain changes in policy can push the political debate in new and – from the point of view of the game-changer – more congenial directions. The phrase told us everything about what Bush's No. 1 guy had once hoped to accomplish – and everything about the fix he and his president are now in.

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Contrast Rove on offense last January before the Republican National Committee with Monday's more defensive Rove. In January, Rove spoke of the battle against terror and said this fall's election would turn on the contrast between “two parties that have fundamentally different views on national security.”

In his speech on Monday, Rove shelved the world historical perspective in favor of the staple issue of midterm politics, pleading with his audience to think kindly of the Bush economic record. He spoke at length about the mess the economy was in toward the end of Bill Clinton's term (though he did not mention Clinton's name), and how our economic problems were deepened by the consequences of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Bush's economic policies, particularly his tax cuts, helped cure what ailed us, Rove said bravely. They “have strengthened the economy, increased productivity and created new jobs.” The fact that Rove needed to make this case in the first place tells you the trouble the administration faces. All the polls, which Rove played down but acknowledged reading avidly (“I look at those polls all the time,” he said before dismissing the idea of poll-driven policies), show large majorities disapproving of Bush's handling of the economy.

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