The Bush Poll "Dance"

One of the articles discussed today was the Gershkoff and Kushner study which attempted and I believe successfully proved The Bush administration's intent to utilize the support of the war on terror in Afghanistan and equate that war with taking down Hussein's regime in Iraq. Their data is successful in proving that not only did Bush intentionally utilize this form of deception but additionally there was no media debate to counter the Bush administration's argument for the war in Iraq. Here the media failed unquestionably.

However, Green presents a very different activity of the Bush administration that I would argue is not deceptive but rather an intelligent way of getting the American people on his side. According to Green, President Bush claims to not use polling to guide him (specifically in this anecdote regarding National Security), but Green informs us that:

On the last day of February, the Bush administration kicked off its renewed initiative to privatize Social Security in a speech before the National Summit on Retirement Savings in Washington, D.C. Rather than address "Social Security," Bush opted to speak about "retirement security." And during the brief speech he repeated the words "choice" (three times), "compound interest" (four times), "opportunity" (nine times) and "savings" (18 times). These words were not chosen lightly. The repetition was prompted by polls and focus groups.

While this example shows that Bush is deceptive in his claim not to use polling to guide his policies, what is wrong with the President using polling to sell his policies. One of the roles of the President, is party leader. Part of being the "party leader" is selling your party's agenda. If the President can be more successful by utilizing polling to find out how to best market his "product" (legislation) to the American people, is he really doing anything dishonest?

Green argues that keeping the polling data of a president under lock and key is suspicious, do we blame coca-cola for keeping their recipe secret? While yes, the president represents us, the American People, and he does have a responsibility to have some level of transparency, if you don't like the way he is running his "business" don't cast your vote for him in the next election.

It is clear, that when it comes to issues of national security, an American, especially one going to or sending a loved one off to battle has a right to know what they are fighting for and why the enemy is the enemy. I believe, and perhaps this is the deeper argument of Gershkoff, that national security is a whole different ballgame. For the President to try and sell a national health plan using more popular language based on polling is one thing, creating a narrative that borders on fiction is another. One thing is for sure, anything our President does will never match the idiocy of this President:


The point, I believe, is that the President has a job to do, and if through successful and intelligent usage of polling data the President can better sell his agenda, he has the right to do that, but is responsible for the risks that come along with that plan of action.