December 3, 2005
Salesman-in-Chief
By Lawrence
Kudlow
Could it be
that George W. Bush, our first MBA president, is adopting a new
strategy to aggressively market and merchandise his policies and
successes? Finally?
Following
the Friday morning arrival of a strong jobs report -- one that
came in well over the monthly average for the past year -- Bush
actually appeared on the South Lawn of the White House to make
a statement on the success of the economy and his tax-cut policies.
This is what President Clinton used to do in the 1990s with each
piece of good news, and it’s what President Reagan did through
numerous televised speeches from the White House in the 1980s.
This is exactly what Bush needs to do.
Message repetition.
Without it the mainstream media will fill the void with their
usual brand of pessimism. But the reality is that the economic
story is an optimistic one. GDP growth is steady and significant.
November jobs expanded by 215,000 (238,000 including prior revisions)
and unemployment remains at a historical 5 percent low. Earlier
in the week a slew of new economic reports all came in above Wall
Street estimates: rising consumer confidence, strong new home
sales, expanding business investment in capital goods, and continued
manufacturing growth according to the Institute for Supply Management.
The stock market, meanwhile, is in the midst of a big year-end
rally. These are great economic signs, but Bush must get the message
out again and again.
The same
holds true for the Iraq war. Things are going far better in the
Middle East than the mainstream media would have us believe. Bush
did himself a lot of good with his Iraq speech at Annapolis this
past Wednesday. It was filled with facts and figures and made
the case that Iraqi-ization is moving forward. The president laid
out a comprehensive and easy-to-understand strategy of “clear,
hold, and build.” Bush rightly refused to schedule a withdrawal
timetable that would only help the terrorists. He provided plenty
of numbers, such as 120 Iraqi army and police battalions today,
where there were virtually none a year ago. Eighty of these are
fighting side by side with U.S. troops, while 40 others are taking
the lead in various fights. Thirty Iraqi battalions are now controlling
specific geographic areas. On the economic front, the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) expects Iraq’s GDP to grow in real terms
by 3.7 percent in 2005 and nearly 17 percent in 2006.
Democratic
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi essentially called Bush a liar
on all this, saying “the fact that the president says it’s
so doesn’t mean it’s so.” Really? Even Bush
military critics like Gen. Barry McCaffrey now believe that significant
progress is being made on turning the fighting over to the Iraqis.
Supposedly
Bush will follow up with several more speeches on the war. If
so, the new communications and marketing approach will yield high
dividends -- not only for Bush’s political standing, but
more importantly for the health and security of the entire United
States.
And the public
agrees. Friday’s Rasmussen poll puts Bush’s approval
rating at 46-percent, several percentage points higher than it
was in the previous poll. The RealClearPolitics polling
average of Bush approval has moved into the low forties, which
is also up several points. I continue to believe that Bush has
bottomed.
Iraq improvement,
a strong job-creating economy, lower gasoline prices at the pump,
and a rising stock market all clearly favor a Bush political comeback.
So will Republican congressional passage of budget and tax-cut
legislation. Democrats who have been gloating over Bush’s
political misfortunes are prematurely dancing on his grave. What’s
more, the “Pelosi-Murtha” position of immediate withdrawal
from Iraq is proving to be highly unpopular. Congressman Murtha’s
latest anti-war broadside that the U.S. Army is “broken,
worn-out” is an unmitigated disaster. So is Democratic failure
to support Republican tax and budget cuts in Congress.
At long last,
the second-term president may be seizing his bully pulpit. In
doing so, he must take advantage of the weak Democratic opposition
and build on his strengths, which include a strong economy and
the many successes in Iraq that go unreported day after day. By
repeatedly talking to the nation in plain-speaking terms about
each and every success, the tides of optimism will rise in his
favor.
Basically,
this country will follow if the president leads. After all, help
comes to those who help themselves. If Bush doesn’t do it,
no one will do it for him. Presidential leadership requires strong
communication. The commander-in-chief must also be the salesman-in-chief.
That’s a political necessity. What we saw this past week
was a good start, but the president must follow through.
Lawrence
Kudlow is a former Reagan economic advisor, a syndicated columnist,
and the co-host of CNBC's Kudlow
& Company. Visit
his blog, Kudlow's Money
Politics.
