He’s either supremely confident of his party’s recuperative capabilities, supremely confident of the Democrats’ ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, or he knows something we don’t know — or any combination of these three:
President George W. Bush, trying to boost his standing with Americans, confidently predicted on Friday that Republicans will retain control of Congress in November elections despite his political troubles.
“We will hold the House (of Representatives) and the Senate,” Bush said in the first formal, solo news conference he has held outside of Washington. “I’m looking forward to these elections. I think you’ll be surprised.”
There was a time when this could all be taken with a grain of salt as big as a portion of the Dead Sea that has evaporated. But given the nearly frenzied infighting among parts of the Democratic party over Joe Lieberman’s political fate, the way the White House rebounded (partly) in the wake of Zarqawi’s unlamented death, and the sharp reminder that unscripted external events (N-o-r-t-h K-o-r-e-a) can influence the political terrain… you have to wonder about the accuracy of what was the conventional wisdom just a few months ago that it was a safe bet the Democrats would take one or more houses of Congress. Don’t bet your Aunt Fanny’s girdle in Vegas just yet.
In November will Bush’s statement be seen as just another pro-forma statement…or a tip off that there were some things and/or surprises Karl Rove had lined up in the political pipeline?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.