kane

So let's take a minute to talk about reality.

Do you remember the 2000 election? If not let me refresh you. Economist were saying that we could be heading into a recession. The economy was in a slight downturn and could get worse. What does Bush do? He built much of his campaign around the fear that there was a recession coming and we needed big tax cuts to help ward it off. Every time he opened his mouth it was about how bad the economy will get if you don't elect him and let him cut taxes. I'm not a rocket scientist, but that sounds a little bit like economic fear mongering to me.

So he gets elected and yes we have a terrorist attack and yes he was correct to be realistic about it and talk about it. But he then used it as his sole reason for being in office. Let's be honest, the republican economic policies didn't work. He had no ground to stand on there (don't mistake this for me saying Obama's will - maybe they will and maybe they won't, but it doesn't change the fact that Bush's didn't work) so he went with what he knew. . . fear. On the eve of the 2004 election what happens? Oh that's right, we get another Bin Laden tape that suddenly gets a timely release and Bush sets out to remind everyone that they must not change course. I remember him saying something to the effect of. "We have to fight the terrorist in Iraq so that we aren't fighting them in the streets of Baltimore." Here is the kicker, a few weeks after the election I am talking to a friend of mine and we are debating the Iraq war and she says to me, "Even if Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 I would rather we fight terrorist there or they will invade us and we might have to fight them in Baltimore or some other city." She was scared and believed his words. She thought there was a shipload of terrorist somewhere that were going to invade a US city if we pulled out of Iraq. That, my friend, is using fear to convince people to choose a particular path. Bush should have occasionally reminded the public about terrorist, but he seemed to do it every time he opened his mouth. It was his one highlight. He was a lame duck president with historically low approval ratings, but the one thing he had going for him was that since 9/11 there had been no more terrorist attacks on US soil and he never missed a chance to remind all of us of that fact and he did it in a way that made it seem like he was the guy who would keep us safe, the liberals would turn the country over to the terrorist. That is fear, plain and simple.

Is Obama using fear to push some things through? Sure. Is the economy a clear and present danger? Without question. Here is the question. If his economic policies work and the economy turns around, will he use this economic collapse as a cornerstone for most of the things he does from here on out? Will we see Obama 3-4 years from now saying, "We need to pass this bill in order to help make sure we don't suffer another economic collapse ." Even if said bill has little or nothing to do with the economy. Bush used the manta of "keeping us safe" as the cornerstone for much of his policies. I can't count the number of times I saw him talk about the need to "protect" the American people even if the law/bill/policy he was talking about really had nothing to do with that.

Bush started his campaign beating the drums of fear and for 8 years he never stopped. Some of the time during that 8 ears the need was real and timely, but much of the time it was simply convenient and helped him get what he wanted. Obama ended his campaign beating the drums of fear and is still doing it today. Like Bush right after 9/11 it is a necessary thing because the seriousness of the situation calls for it. We will have to wait to see if continues to go back to this well over and over again.