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The Perfect Storm?

At least that is what Howard Dean calls his mobilization effort in Iowa. Sure, he's getting decked left and right this week from other Democratic challengers. But the President is having fun himself. First, he decided to "modernize" immigration policy and then he made a bold call for a mission to Mars. Nevermind the fact that Bush already is going to have "plenty of "splainin' " to do when former Treasury Secretary and Alcoa boss Paul O'Neill sits down with 60 Minutes tommorrow night. We can imagine this is perhpas an attempt to sell more copies of his book on Amazon.com. But the fact is when one of your own accuses you and says that the other team is right...well it's never good.

But because of all the attention on Iowa, the Republicans have been out there going after everyone from the sushi-eaters to the Volvo-drivers. But before the GOP gets ready to celebrate the nomination of Howard Dean just yet...good ol' "Shrub" might have a problem on his hands. I don't mean O'Neill's tangy memoir either.

Bush's immigration strategy isn't working in the states he wants to make headway in, such as California, Arizona, New Mexico, and even Texas. And this alone isn't really where things get bad. Instead, Bush opened his mouth and said something incredibly unartful. He believes there should be a "guest worker program" for jobs Americans are "not willing" to do. This statement is complete and utter POLITICAL SUICIDE. Not more than ten minutes later Bush had to admit that even with holiday hiring patterns, unemployment barely budged. Think about it logically: Bush argues that it's time to let in more people so that labor markets starved for employees can find them. And sure, when the times get tough suburbanites don't run to the fields to pick lettuce.

But remember, many people are losing their jobs to outsourcing and tech workers especially, see the labor market depressed by the influx of temporary workers on such things as the HB-1 visa. So with unemployment not going down, jobs exported by the day, medical and other benefits shrinking, Bush is then going to say we need more workers? Sure from his perspective it's a magnficient idea to destroy unions and revolutionize the world labor markets. But he forgets the cardinal rule of American politics: don't cater to those who can't vote. Then again, this could prove to be the piece d' la resistance for Karl Rove and the apex of conservatism dominance in America....or the perfect storm.
posted by Thomas at 12:50 AM 0 comments