Chameleon-In-Chief

Marvin kicks off the style over substance debate but then promptly proceeds to blog about actual (semi) substantive issues. No danger of that here. This post will be limited to the higher plane of pure style.

Apparently, George Bush is finding inspiration for his latest campaign incarnation in the oddest of places...The Al Gore Strategy:

Bush's aides said the convention showed them that Kerry will never be the more personable candidate in the race. The aides said they plan to keep the president in many casual settings in the weeks ahead instead of emphasizing the trappings of office that they had favored when they thought his biggest strength was his role as commander in chief.

So Bush was out in rolled-up sleeves this weekend, saying things such as, "You can't talk sense to these folks," in reference to terrorists. He made a snide aside to "places like Washington, D.C." He visited a Dover candy store and spent about $1.50. He tossed around a football at the Cleveland Brown's training camp...

...Although Bush took a risk by stepping out of his nearly impregnable bubble and drawing attention to the plight of Timken workers, his move was designed to bolster his regular-guy image.

Ironically, of course, is that this is the same George Bush who benefitted from conservative accusations that Al Gore changed political personnas as often as George Bush has changed rationales for the Iraq War. Just as Al Gore went from Alpha Male to earth tones our Chameleon-In-Chief is going for the rugged regular guy look (think the Construction Man in the Village People) rather than being the imperial president.

What makes this even more comical is that just three days ago the GOP accused Kerry of undergoing an "extreme makeover." Ha!

But hey, if Bush wants to be a regular guy, why should we stop him? I say send him home to Crawford where he can be as regular as he wants to be. But I'm not sure he'd be any better as a regular guy than he is at being president. Afterall, how many regular-guys have to get the people they hang out with to sign loyalty oaths?

Oh, and Bush's crack team might want to check the assumptions underlying their Chameleon Bush strategy. According to Newsweek

The Democratic Party’s nominee now boasts stronger ratings than the president on being “personally likeable” (67 percent agree with that description of Kerry, 62 percent of the president); on being someone who cares about “someone like you” (57 percent feel this describes Kerry, 44 percent Bush).

Maybe in the next iteration of George Bush he'll go back to knocking back a few tall boys with the voters. That would be a treat to see.