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Jewish World Review March 22, 2000 /15 Adar II, 5760

David Limbaugh

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Media to Bush: Go left, young man


http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- THE TWIN TOWERS of print-media liberalism began this week with a double-barreled volley against presidential candidate George Bush. The unmistakable message to Dubya: Don't you dare trespass on our turf. Don't even think about encroaching on liberalism's compassion monopoly.

The Washington Post and the New York Times unleashed lengthy "news" articles Monday slamming Bush and seeking to undermine his position as a compassionate conservative and reformer, respectively.

Both papers warn Bush that he must be a different kind of conservative to win the general election, yet ridicule him for trying to hold himself out as one. They urge him to move to the center, but they don't really mean "center." They mean "left." Otherwise they would also tell the left-wing Gore to shift to the center. But they don't. These same paragons of objective reporting are telling us that Gore is already in the center, a committed disciple of New Democrat Bill Clinton.

Could it be that they are unaware of Al Gore's hysterical mini-treatise on the environment, "Earth in the Balance," or that he wants to make computer literacy an entitlement? Might they be ignorant of his leftist views on taxes, spending, guns, health care, SDI, unilateral nuclear disarmament, education, judicial appointments, Social Security, Medicare and Democratic corruption? It's doubtful. What's more likely is that they are so blinded by their own liberalism that they consider leftist policies to be mainstream.

The Post article reads like a debater's flow chart with an itemized critique of many of Bush's policies, demonstrating how they all lack compassion. Several lines will illustrate the point. Gore "can't wait to clobber Bush for his alleged lack of compassion on Social Security, health care, abortion, gun control and more." "After losing badly in the New Hampshire primary, (Bush) turned the campaign from education and charity to an ugly brew of Confederate flags, nasty phone calls and tough anti-abortion and anti-gay stances." "(Bush) earned more criticism for allowing the execution of a great-grandmother who claimed domestic abuse." "His $1.3 trillion tax cut proposal (larger than even [evil] House Republicans could contemplate) leaves virtually no money for new government spending." "His compassionate conservative theme was replaced by a veneer of hard-right nastiness" (when "Pat Robertson car-jacked his campaign").

The Post is clearly implying that:

  • Gore's plan to raid the general revenue in perpetuity to subsidize Social Security is more compassionate than Bush's plan to partially privatize it -- which, incidentally, is the only hope of "saving it" and maximizing retirement dollars for U.S. workers

  • Gore's plan to incrementally nationalize and thus ruin health care is abundantly compassionate

  • Gore's militant pro-abortion stance is more compassionate than Bush's pro-life position, the abject absurdity of which speaks for itself, unless you truly consider babies unworthy of compassion

  • Gore's hostility towards the Second Amendment is more compassionate and respectful of life than Bush's emphasis on strict law enforcement

  • Gore's career-long refusal to denounce the presence of a Confederate flag in his native Tennessee is more compassionate than Bush's assertion that South Carolina's Confederate flag is a state issue

  • Gore's gay rights sympathies are more compassionate than Bush's view that sexual preference should confer no special rights

  • Bush lacked compassion because he refused to stay the execution of a convicted, multi-murdering widow who only lived long enough to be a grandmother because of the slow wheels of justice

  • It is uncompassionate to return taxpayers' monies to them instead of allowing the needy federal government to devise novel ways to spend them

  • Christian conservatives are extreme and nasty

So what is the Post's advice to Bush? He must "defy his religious and corporate conservatives while making some serious proposals to win over the poor and minorities." In other words, he must become a morally superior liberal.

Well, that may be a perfect formula to win someone a reporting gig in the national print or broadcast media, but it's not a Republican's avenue to the White House.

Sadly, the Post just doesn't get it. Bush doesn't want to be a liberal. He doesn't want to remake conservatism. He just wants a fair hearing to make his case that conservatism is compassionate -- a hearing the national media will never be willing to give him.


JWR contributor David Limbaugh is an attorney practicing in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and a political analyst and commentator. Send your comments to him by clicking here.

WND

Up

03/20/00: Stop the insanity
03/15/00: OK Al Gore: Let's go negative
03/13/00: Deifying of the center
03/08/00: The media, the establishment and the people
03/01/00: McCain's coalition-busting daggers in GOP's heart
02/28/00: Bush's silver lining in McMichigan
02/24/00: A conservative firewall, after all
02/22/00: Bush or four more of Clinton-Gore?
02/16/00: Substance trumps process
02/14/00: The campaign finance reform mirage
02/09/00: President McCain: End of the GOP as we know it?
02/07/00: From New Hampshire to South Carolina
02/02/00: SDI must fly
01/31/00: Veep gores Bradley
01/26/00: The issues gap
01/24/00: GOP: Exit, stage left
01/20/00: Nationalizing congressional elections
01/18/00: Do voters really prefer straight talk?
01/12/00: Media's McCain efforts may backfire
01/10/00: Conservative racism myth
01/05/00: Just one more year of Clintonian politics
01/03/00: McMedia?
12/27/99: Al Gore: Bullish on government
12/22/99: Bradley's full-court press
12/20/99: Bush: Rendering unto Caesar
12/15/99: Beltway media bias
12/13/99: White House ambulance chasing
12/08/99: Clinton's labor pains
12/06/99:The lust for power
12/01/99: In defense of liberty
11/29/99: Are Republicans obsolete?
11/24/99: Say you're sorry, Mr. President
11/22/99: Architects of victory
11/17/99: Trump's tax on freedom
11/15/99: GOP caves again
11/10/99: Triangulation and 'The Third Way'
11/08/99: Sticks and stones
11/03/99: Keyes vs. media lapdogs
11/01/99: Signs of the times
10/27/99: The false charge of isolationism
10/25/99: A matter of freedom
10/20/99: Clinton's mini-meltdown
10/18/99: Senate GOP shows statesmanship
10/13/99: Senate must reject nuclear treaty
10/11/99: Bush bites feeding hand
10/06/99: Jesse accidentally opens door for Pat
10/04/99: Clinton and his media enablers
09/29/99: Reagan: Big-tent conservatism
09/27/99: The Clinton/Gore taint?
09/22/99: Have gun (tragedy), will travel
09/20/99: Hillary's blunders and bloopers
09/15/99: GOP must remain conservative
09/13/99:Time for Bush to take charge, please
09/10/99: Bush's education plan: Dubya confounds again
09/07/99: Pat, savior or spoiler?
09/02/99: Character doesn't matter?
08/30/99: Should we judge?
08/25/99: Dubyah's drug question: Not a hill to die on
08/23/99: Should Dubyah start buying soap ... for all that mud?
08/16/99: 'W' stands for 'winner'
08/11/99: The truth about tax cuts
08/09/99: Hillary: Threading the needle
08/04/99: What would you do?
08/02/99: No appeasement for China
07/30/99: Hate Crimes Bill: Cynical Symbolism
07/26/99: It’s the 'moderates', stupid
07/21/99: JFK Jr. and Diana: the pain of privilege
07/19/99: Smith, Bush and the GOP
07/14/99: GOP must be a party of ideas
07/12/99: Gore's gender gap
07/08/99: Clinton’s faustian bargain: our justice
07/06/99: The key to Bush's $36 million
06/30/99: Gore: a soda in every fountain
06/28/99: 'Sacred wall' or religious barrier?
06/23/99: GOP must lead in foreign policy
06/21/99: Crumbs of compassion
06/16/99: Compassionate conservatism: face-lift or body transplant?
06/10/99: Victory in Kosovo? Now What?

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