THE ART OF COOPTING

For those of us who would like President Bush voted out of office in 2004, the weak Democratic presidential candidates aren't the only reasons it's going to be an uphill battle. A Washington Post article noted that in this fundraising period (the last two months perhaps?), Bush has already raised $30 MILLION, an amount that the 9 Democratic presidential candidates may have raised COMBINED.

In addition, the strategy behind the Bush-Cheney campaign is so sleek -- this administration is dismantling every social program and convincing the public that he's doing it for their good. In ONE WEEK alone, Republicans have managed to pass out of a House committee a plan to dismantle the HeadStart program for low-income communities (handing it over to states; requiring 1/2 of headstart teachers to have a 4 year college degree by 2008, but paying them half of what kindergarten teachers make), and he's managed to push privatization into the public Medicare program (which could disqualify some seniors and make others pay more for less). In the end, he'll claim that he fought for "affordable medicare" and if we aren't saavy enough, we'll believe him. He's even got senators passing a bill without knowing details -- Republican Senator Judd Gregg (New Hampshire) stated last week "No one understands what the heck this bill says or will do" -- and yet it was passed in the House and the Senate this week. Wow.

So between his fundraising efforts and his efforts to coopt Democratic plans (fighting for affordable medicare) as his own (while smashing the programs to pieces), he's got us, and it'll be hard to beat him come election day.

Lastly, two things on the Head Start issue. It is quite disturbing that for the most part, many of the decisions of the Bush administration are made behind closed doors and are not open to the public. However, the administration went too far when it threatened Head Start employees and parents of children in the program with loss of grant funding and possible criminal charges if they were to speak up against the bill to dismantle it. How crazy is that? Second, I did it and I hope you do too -- click here to send a quick message to your elected official asking to Save Head Start.