11/5/04 2:00 PM EST Post-Campaign PR Offensive Planned By White House
White House communications officials said today that President Bush's Thursday press conference indicated that the administration plans to press hard to secure the public's backing for the president's new agenda. "We're not going to waste the momentum. We're pushing hard," said a senior official. Administration aides said that the White House plans to promote different elements of the president's second term agenda each week, skipping the normal practice of lying low until the next budget is unveiled.
"We're continuing with the election agenda. We aren't joking," said another official. Administration officials said they are already looking at ways to take advantage of the post-election news drought to push programs such as Social Security reform and changes to the tax code. The officials said that the president believes his best chance to make legacy-enhancing changes is in his first year of the second term–before the congressional reelection period and the 2008 presidential race kick in. The officials also said that Bush hopes to make enough popular reforms that he can add to the GOP House and Senate headcount in 2006. –Paul Bedard, U.S. News
11/5/04 2:00 PM EST Bush Team Sees Big Progress with Blacks, Jews, Latinos
Senior officials of the Bush campaign are offering a new take on the election to US News and the Bulletin this morning. They argue that the country is not quite as divided as the television punditrocracy is claiming, and the initial exit polls sponsored by the TV networks did not reflect the extent of America's move toward conservatism. Among the Republican findings: Latinos increased their support for President Bush from 35% in 2000 to 44% in 2004; African-American support went from 9 to 11%; and the Jewish vote went from 19 to 24%.
These and other GOP exit poll results make Bush and his high command all the more confident that he did win a mandate and that he can expand conservatism's popularity over the next four years if he stays the course with a conservative agenda. One of the areas the Republicans admit they need to improve on, however, is with young voters. They find that 17% of citizens aged 18-29 cast ballots on Tuesday, the same percentage as in 2000, and Kerry won overwhelming support in this demographic. A senior Bush administration official says, "we have our work to do. But we're confident with issues like health savings account and social security reform we can win more of them over." –Kenneth T. Walsh, U.S. News
11/5/04 2:00 PM EST Some Republicans Line Up To Deny Specter Judiciary
Sen. Arlen Specter's expectation that he will be approved as the next Senate Judiciary Committee chairman may be challenged by Senate GOP conservatives, egged on by White House officials, angered at Specter's suggestion that President Bush not try to pack the Supreme Court with anti-abortion advocates. "My guys are going to pound on him like a 10 penny nail," said an influential GOP lobbyist. White House insiders and GOP congressional officials were stunned this week when Specter first made his comments. The officials are worried that his remarks would firm up the backbone of other moderate Republican senators who want to block conservatives from getting on the Supreme Court. Under attack by conservatives, Specter has backed off his warning, but White House officials worry that he planted a seed of discontent with administration judicial choices.
To get Specter onboard the White House agenda, some Republican officials are moving to challenge Specter's move into the judiciary committee chairman's job. Specter this week said he is in line to replace Sen. Orrin Hatch, who must step down due to term limit rules. "I think there is a 50-50 chance that Specter will not become chairman or, if he is, that he will not last long," said a GOP congressional insider. More proof Specter's in trouble: Some Senate staffers and allies have created a website, www.notspector.com, to keep the Pennsylvania senator from gaining the committee chairmanship. An early version of the website says it was "Organized as a project of RedState.org – NotSpecter is dedicated to the proposition that the Republican party, the conservative movement, and the country would all be better served without Arlen Specter as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. For decades, Specter has shown that his personal interests and the President's agenda are at odds." –Paul Bedard, U.S. News
11/5/04 2:00 PM EST Evans Talked About As A Snow Replacement
Despite persistent reports that Commerce Secretary Don Evans wants to return home to Texas to join his family, senior administration officials insist that he has not made up his mind about the future and may instead switch jobs. Administration officials this week said that Evans may end up as White House chief of staff or Treasury secretary. Commerce insiders said that Evans has not told them of his plans, but they say reports he's eager to return to Texas are inaccurate. They said the reports were sparked by Evans' decision over the summer to sell his Virginia house and move into a condo after sending his family back home to Texas. They said that Evans, one of President Bush's best friends, will remain in Washington as long as the president likes. But signs he was staying were firmed up after the president's reelection when Evans' name began popping up in talk about a cabinet shakeup, with the former oilman moving to Treasury. –Paul Bedard, U.S. News
11/5/04 9:00 AM EST Upbeat Bush Vows To Use Political Capital On Social Security, Tax Reform
President Bush yesterday faced the White House press corps in what at least one observer called "his best press conference. . .ever." Bush, according to the New York Times, was "relaxed, almost jovial, as he needled the press corps and then reminded his viewers more than once that in his mind 'results really do matter' and that he views the 51 percent majority he won Tuesday as a license to legislate." The President covered a wide variety of topics, including Social Security, Iraq, and the role of faith in government, and he pledge to use his "political capital" to accomplish his goals. However, the President never explicitly claimed to have a "mandate," and continued to reach out to Democrats.
ABC World News Tonight reported Bush "feels people have embraced his point of view and he will tell the Congress as much." ABC added Bush "says he believes he has been given a mandate to act," and quoted Bush saying: "I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it. It is my style." ABC added, "What Mr. Bush will spend it on is clear. The big item on the domestic agenda," Social Security. The CBS Evening News reported Bush "did not use the word 'mandate,' but. . .the President made it clear that as he sees it, he has one." CBS added Bush will "bet some of his political capital on plans to reform the tax system and create private accounts for Social Security." NBC Nightly News reported Bush's "second-term domestic agenda is expansive, extending education reform by imposing new accountability standards on high schools, making permanent the tax cuts passed during his first term and a broader effort to revamp the tax code. . .confronting the glut of what Mr. Bush calls junk personal injury lawsuits, and social security reform which would let younger workers create private savings accounts." CNN's Inside Politics reported that Bush "made crystal clear that he believes he has a mandate and that he will go ahead with a domestic legislative agenda that will immediately test that bipartisan spirit the president says he certainly hopes for." In a front-page story, the Washington Post reports, "In both words and tone, Bush conveyed exceptional self-assurance as he jauntily parried with reporters and served notice that he expects Congress to move with dispatch on his agenda." The Los Angeles Times reports Bush "gave a bow toward bipartisanship, but said his election victory had given him political muscle that he intended to exercise in a second term." Bloomberg reports Bush, "re-elected by the narrowest popular-vote margin for an incumbent since Woodrow Wilson in 1916, may pursue an agenda worthy of a landslide winner." The Los Angeles Times reports, "Bush is staking out difficult goals for his second term," and "if he accomplishes everything he committed himself to on Thursday, he could claim a place alongside Ronald Reagan – the president he cites as a model, more than his own father – in reshaping government policy to conservative design."
The AP reports, "Capping medical malpractice limits. . .will be one of his first proposals because it 'had been debated and got thwarted a couple of times,' the president said."
USA Today reports that when "asked about reports of an imminent assault on Fallujah, Bush said Iraqi insurgents 'must be defeated.'"
The Wall Street Journal reports Bush's "remarks helped propel the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its biggest one-day gain in more than a year."
In a front-page story, the New York Times reports, "Bush gave no indication of how he would balance pressure from the evangelical Christians who played an important role in winning his re-election and his stated desire to reduce the nation's partisan tensions."
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