Mehlman compares Bush to Truman, Iraq to Korea

[dajoki]

My dinner with Ken Mehlman
The RNC chairman compares Bush to Truman, Iraq to Korea

By Howard Fineman
MSNBC
Updated: 3:01 p.m. ET Oct 17, 2006
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15302573/


WASHINGTON - They are calling them “pre-mortems” — explanations in advance for what are expected to be Republican losses in the midterm elections next month. I heard a fascinating “pre-mortem” over dinner the other night from no less a personage than Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee.

It went roughly as follows: The Democrats are running against George Bush and the Iraq war. To the extent that they succeed, it will largely be because of the president’s low job-approval numbers — which are at rock bottom mostly because voters can’t see that he is leading us in a new and “different kind of war, an insurgent war” against Islamic fascists. The last president to lead us “for the first time in a different kind of war” was President Harry Truman. The war was the Korean War, which started in the summer of 1950, and which was going badly that fall. “People thought at the time that the Korean War was a failure,” Mehlman said. “Now we look back and see that it was an incredibly important success.” It defined the Cold War, a war America won.

Mehlman insisted to me that the Republicans would hang onto both the House and the Senate. He may be right: he is the best in the business at what he does, which is organize election campaigns.

But if Bush=Truman and Iraq=Korea, then the GOP is in for a drubbing next month. In the midterm elections of 1950, the president’s party, the Democrats, lost 29 House seats and six Senate seats. Eerily, those numbers are in the plausible upper reaches of the Beltway consensus about the amount of seats Republicans will lose on Nov. 7.

[grytpype]

1. Great, so we'll be there for 50 yrs and Iraq will be testing a nuke soon.

[htuttle]

2. But, I thought Iraq=WWII, and Bush = Churchill?

So, is Bush supposed to be an alcoholic Englishman, or a guy from Missouri? I'm confused. Who's in charge of continuity on this script???

[peekaloo]

3. apparently the writers for 'Lost'.

:o

[FrenchieCat]

4. Guess that means that since Gen. Eisenhower won't be available to

clean up the Bush/Truman mess, Gen. Wes Clark will have to step up instead and end the damn shit. It is true that the 1952 elections were the last elections were no incumbent or Vice-President were running.....and so, maybe it goes!

Velly Intelesting!

[neoblues]

5. Ignore what Mehlman "thinks"; what does Mehlman compare to...

I'm sure someone here can come up with better than a talking sack of sh_t (which is what came to my mind).

[caffeinefwee]

6. So what should we compare Moron, I mean Mehlman to?

duh, duh

[OzarkDem]

7. Truman would hate Bush with a fiery passion

Though I'd love to hear what Truman would say about Bush. It would definitely contain inappropriate language.