You Be George's Coach
Your mission, should you agree to accept it, is to define a
strategy for good old Georgie to regain his equilibrium and get
his presidency back on solid ground. There is no question that
he has had a bad few months and the near future doesn't look
good either, with the potential indictments coming for Rove and
Libby. The offense is definitely sputtering. What do you do,
what do you recommend that he do to score some points and turn
the tide?
As a coach of an athletic team, whenever we are having problems
I usually try to simplify the game, follow the Vince Lombardi
philosophy and return to basics. With that in mind, what is the
problem? Well, one thing for sure is that people don't think
G.W. is being an effective administrator these days. If I were
the coach here, I would say to focus on one thing and make sure
it succeeds. Get the best people, work hard, and deliver.
Second, people are sceptical of all the photo ops. Stop them
unless they result in solid acts that provide substantive
results, no more fake crap. Third, about Harriet Miers, ask
supporters to hold off on the criticism as much as possible and
then provide the Senate with information that they want. If she
is actually that good, she should be able to stand on her own
two feet. She has to establish her own identity, independent of
the Presidency. She has to impress the right that she is not
against their beliefs. I wouldn't say that she should say that
she will do everything they want. I don't think any judge or
potential judge should say they will be beholden to any specific
political viewpoint, but she can allay some of their fears.
Fourth, regarding Iraq, the President needs to pray a lot,
because he really screwed this up. Walking away soon would be an
utter disaster, pouring more troops in would be politically and
logistically difficult, and staying the course, considering our
success or lack thereof, is not promising. Hope that the
constitution passes and people settle down to rebuilding rather
than destroying their homeland. I know that I would recommend an
all out effort to provide aid to the earthquake area of
Pakistan. It might not have a direct bearing on Iraq, but it is
a center of extreme fundamentalist Islam. Anything we can do
there would not only save lives but show those people we are
really on their side. Wow, what a mess this is.
There is my basic outline.