The President George W. Bush Report, Vol. 5
For President George W. Bush

We recently took a trip through western Pennsylvania and had a chance to chat with a variety of folks, from convenience store and hotel personnel to businesspeople to patrons of adult beverage establishments - up and down the socioeconomic ladder. By way of non-leading questions we attempted to get a feel for what the voters in this battleground state are thinking about the coming presidential election.

This was by no means a scientific poll, so if you as president decide to ignore our findings you will not hurt our feelings. We think perhaps you should give some thought to the following, though.

As a side note, quite in contrast to the scene we are most familiar with, Pennsylvania is flush with blue collar Democrats. Pickup trucks and other redneck conveyances in Pittsburgh seem to just as frequently sport John Kerry bumper stickers as any other political messages. Here in Northern Virginia, the pickup is your most likely pro-Bush vehicle of all, followed by Buicks and Caddys.

Anyway, here is a summary of opinions we gleaned over a couple days, and corresponding messages that President George W. Bush might do well to consider emphasizing in the next few months:

* Ixnay on the Emocracyday

Of course, it's wonderful the Iraqi people have a chance at freedom and a better life. But we don't want to sacrifice our kids to make that happen, especially considering the Ungrateful Bastards theme that keeps on playing. To repeat: We do not give a rat's hindquarters for the people of Iraq if we're going to keep sending our children into a medieval meat grinder.

There is the mess and horror of Fallujah, which might have been the final wake up call that Folks Over There Are NOT Like Folks Over Here. It's also where the first experiment in turning security over to Iraqis resulted in rapid transition to a terrorist hotbed.

There is the prospect that civil war could ensue and a friendly dictator may be the best thing we can hope for.

Or everything may proceed smoothly toward democracy and a new bastion of freedom and prosperity could sparkle forth in the midst of the world's worst neighborhood. That would be grand.

But in terms of the reason for going to war, some voters are concerned it was done without sufficient consideration of the risks. One upper middle class (Kerry/Edwards read 'rich') small business owner and entrepreneur who is currently battling anti-competitive forces in his state - presumably a prime candidate for the GOP message - had this to say:

"The impression I have of Bush is, he's never been in a war, but he is pushing those chips onto the table, playing the military card, and he's willing to just keep pushing them out there. Maybe a guy who has actually been to war would be more careful about pushing the chips."

[Note: Those aircraft carrier videos? Unless there is a major success story soon, burn 'em.]

We did not go to war to establish democracy in the Middle East. We sent troops there to protect ourselves. This leads to the next point....

* Reprise: Either You're With Us, Or With Them

The long and short of what has happened in public opinion over the past few months is that your credibility has been challenged. This is unfortunate, unfair, and dumb, but it is what it is. It's not so much that Michael Moore has become the pied piper of popular culture, or the mainstream media have regained respectability, it's just that the deaths and injuries of our troops are hitting home.

Against the backdrop of a 'flawed decision' to attack Iraq, the bad news from the front is bad political news. Against the backdrop of a preemptive action against those who threatened America, casualties are viewed as part of the necessary sacrifice of any war. The problem is that many people have lost sight of the latter rationale.

Your original statement after September 11 has been eclipsed by the liberal noise machine. That statement needs to be repeated and fleshed out. Who, on September 12, 2001, would have believed that within a few years we would be debating the wisdom of going to war against a regime that had sponsored, rewarded and given safe haven to the terrorists? With all that has been unearthed about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs and generally insidious behavior, there should be no question of giving his regime the benefit of the doubt, as though he was accused of starting a fistfight at a Redskins game. His association with the terrorist groups should have been enough to convict him, end of story.

That is the story needing to be told over and over. And to the blue collar and white collar folks alike in the heartland, it should be shouted from the rooftops that....

* It's the Terrorists, Stupid

And the message can be more specific than this: It's the worldwide consortium of fascist barbarians in league with a few state sponsors. Again, the central fact of the conflict is fading into the past. Americans need to be reminded that the issue at hand is a world war, and not some picayune debate over whether there were 'stockpiles' of particular items or whether the threat from Iraq was imminent or - for goodess sakes - what was in the CIA report.

Because there has not been another terrorist attack here, there is a creeping sense that the threat was not so serious after all. That notion needs to be dispatched with extreme prejudice. Our relative security since 9-11 should be framed as a huge success, with due recognition to the Ashcroft Justice Department and the lawmakers who passed the Patriot Act. Remind us how tenuous our security really is.

The entire concept of the perceived threat from Saddam's weapons of mass destruction has been successfully co-opted by the left and transformed into a credibility issue. Unless there is a new discovery, the opportunity to justify the war on the basis of what Saddam might have been pursuing in this area has probably been lost. Chalk that up to a well organized propaganda effort by your opponents. What may or may not be buried in Syria or Lebanon is still extremely relevant to the overall picture, but the current picture has been completely obscured for the man on the street.

Terrorist activities are definitely not obscured, however, and the terrorists are doing a pretty good job staying visible. Each new attack in Iraq and Israel, and each additional ominous warning from the terror masters, should be sufficient raw material for your communications effort about why we are at war, who we are at war against and what the enemy is trying to do.

Thank you, President George W. Bush, for the outstanding job you have done in a terribly difficult situation. You've made hard choices and taken tremendous political risks to lead the country in the direction you believe we need to go. These hard decisions could end up costing you a second term. We believe that with an effective communications effort you can swing public opinion back around and lead the country for four more years.