Liver. It’s What’s For Dinner
By Jan Larson (11/14/05)
When I was a youngster, my mother’s “job approval rating” pretty much correlated to whatever she served for dinner. Spaghetti? Her approval numbers went through the roof. Liver? Not so much.
There were plenty of times that I didn’t approve of my mother’s decisions and I’m sure there were times when she would have preferred that she could take the course that would have met with my approval, but my best interests were not always aligned with my wants.
President Bush’s job approval ratings are at historic lows. To at least some extent, I believe the President suffers from the “liver syndrome.”
There is a segment of the population that wouldn’t approve of the President’s job performance if they had spaghetti for dinner every night. The liver eaters that still think that Al Gore should be sitting in the Oval Office or that John Kerry would have produced untold prosperity in America will never give the President a positive job approval rating.
Another factor in the President’s low popularity ratings is that most Americans need instant gratification. When they don’t get what they want or believe they deserve right now, they complain like children to their mothers.
The war in Iraq, certainly, has not provided instant gratification. Would it have been better to give Saddam Hussein the benefit of the doubt with respect to WMDs and his intentions to use or deliver them? Would it have been better to wait until one of his sons had taken the helm of his ruthless regime? When will it all be over and we won’t have to hear about it and think about it any more?
Those questions are for another time, but given that they remain unanswered and the news (only the bad news since that is the only kind of news that makes news) from Iraq pours in on a daily basis, people are tired of it and just wish it would go away. Why won’t the President make it all go away? Bush is doing a bad job. More liver.
Hurricane Katrina? Despite the assertions of some that believe he not only ordered the New Orleans levees to be blown up but also orchestrated the hurricane itself, there was really little the President personally could do to change the situation, FEMA administration notwithstanding. Nevertheless, another poor job by Bush. Pass the liver.
The economy is growing at an annual rate of nearly four percent but that isn’t enough to score any points for the President. No spaghetti tonight.
The failed nomination of Harriet Miers to the U. S. Supreme Court certainly didn’t help the President’s popularity and the President has also disappointed his base supporters on the subjects of border security, entitlement spending (and government spending in general) and his failure to get Social Security reform off the ground. Not liver again!
Throw in the over-hyped Plame/Libby fiasco and high fuel prices and there are plenty of reasons for anyone looking for a reason to say he or she doesn’t like how the man at the top is doing his job. It seems that no matter what President Bush does, it is liver for dinner for the American public.
Fortunately for the President, it is possible to turn the approval ratings around. The confirmation of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court will help. So would some real tax reform and continued progress in Iraq (although it is difficult to hear of progress in Iraq). Hurricane season is over and energy prices are falling. Now, Mr. President, how about some spaghetti?
Copyright ©2005 Jan A. Larson All rights reserved.
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