WASHINGTON -- Meet President George W. Bush - populist.
The man who entered the White House as a "compassionate conservative" now
considers himself a champion of the "little guy" said Karl Rove, his top
political adviser, and the economic plan that critics have trashed as a sop
to the rich is in reality aimed at the middle class.
"He is a populist," said Rove, comparing Bush to his political hero,
President Theodore Roosevelt. "Give him a choice between Wall Street and
Main Street and he'll choose Main Street every time."
The label is apt, Rove told a gathering of reporters, even though blush is
a millionaire oilman who came from wealth and whose father also served as
president. The proof is in Bush's $670 billion tax cut proposal, which he
said would place a greater burden on the wealthy by removing low-income
payers from the rolls.
"He thinks wealth is too important to be left to the wealthy," Rove said.
Bush, who owns a 1,600 acre ranch in Texas, is not very often characterized
as a populist, a term generally used to describe politicians who support
the interests of working people over corporations. In the past, in fact,
Bush has accused populists who deride his economic plan as engaging in
"class warfare."
Republican populists are relatively rare. The prime populist in current
times is commentator and former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, who
trumpeted a protectionist trade policy during the campaign. Even then,
Buchanan abandoned the GOP to run on the Reform Party slate.
Democrats familiar with Bush's political and personal background were
dubious about Rove's claim. James Carville, the campaign strategist who
managed former President Bill Clinton's successful 1992 effort, dared Rove
to run a campaign presenting Bush as a populist in 2004.
"He is obviously much smarter than anybody else and I urge him to take his
observation and tee it up," Carville said.
The public perceives that the president "doesn't really have an answer for
things," Carville said.
"His answer for everything is to give a tax cut to his campaign
contributors," he said. "You can't go out in a black church and talk about
faith-based initiative and change that perception in people."
Stan Greenberg, a Democratic pollster, said surveys show the image of Bush
being friendly with the wealthy is firmly imbedded in the public's mind.
"On the question of whether George Bush is for the wealthy, it's just a
fact," Greenberg said. "It's just a given. The president stepped up, led
with dividend tax cuts and I think the public has reacted by saying, wrong
balance here.
"It is, in fact, for the wealthy - but the symbols of this plan communicate
it's for the wealthy," Greenberg said.
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