DEMOCRACY'S TRIUMPH BOOSTS POSITIVE PREZ OVER DISMAL DEMS

New York Post

BY DEBORAH ORIN

IRAQ'S dancing-in-the-streets election gave President Bush a surge of
momentum, and last night he made clear that he means to make the most
of it.

Iraq's election shifted the political dynamic in America because of
its amazing success, which validated Bush's belief that freedom can
trump terror — thus making it easier for him to tackle other big
things like Social Security.

So Bush could say in last night's State of the Union speech: "We will
succeed because the Iraqi people value their own liberty — as they
showed the world last Sunday."

Also telling was what Iraqi courage showed about the Democratic Party
in America — it's so angry and so bankrupt of ideas that its leaders
couldn't even rejoice in the Iraqi vote.

"The Democrats are acting out of frustration — what they stand for and
what their strategy is, I can't say. Why would they vigorously oppose
the first black woman to be secretary of state and the first Latino to
be attorney general?" says presidential scholar Stephen Hess.

"Bush has a wind to his back filling his sails, and he knows what he
wants to do. It's quite a mosaic. The things that Bush wants to do are
substantive and ideological, but they all also have a political
agenda."

Indeed they do. Polls suggest that the changes that Bush wants to make
in Social Security are popular with young people, who fear the current
system will go belly-up on them.

Bush's call for medical malpractice reform could cut the legs out from
under trial lawyers.

His push for help for faith-based programs has appeal to blacks and
Latinos, who value the work of churches in the inner city — and aren't
thrilled by Democratic attacks on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
and Attorney General-designate Alberto Gonzales.

Today, Bush takes off for five GOP red states to prod conservative
Democratic lawmakers there to back him on Social Security, just as
many of them did on Iraq.

For years, Republicans have dreamed of a "realigning election" that
would create a stable Republican majority. Oddly enough, it could turn
out that the realigning election came in Iraq.

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Read It And WEEP, Losers...


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