Analysis: Republicans Accepting Blame for Clinton Recession
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Reprinted from NewsMax.com

Christopher Ruddy
Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2001

The predictable media spin began in earnest before the polls closed in New York, Virginia and New Jersey.

Now with the results in, the liberal pundits will be saying the voters, while they support President Bush for the moment, are rejecting his policies.

They will say voters are rejecting Bush's handling of the economy, now in a recession.

CNN analyst William Schneider was repeating his mantra. Last night, he said the voters are rejecting the Republican "anti-government, anti-tax" message.

The major media will make a particular example of the Schundler race.

The media pundits will say real conservative candidates can't run and win in swing states like New Jersey – and if Republicans have any hope of winning next year's races they need to abandon their conservative roots.

The truth is that the election results were far from a rejection of Republican principles.

Let's peel away the spin.

New Jersey

The election loss here was disappointing but predictable.

Bret Schundler is a true-blue Reagan Republican. The honest and hardworking mayor of Jersey City, he still lacked the "big picture” political skills to win a major election.

Schundler won his first election, as mayor of Jersey City, on a fluke, where party labels were not identified on the ballot in a race that had seven competing candidates.

After a corruption scandal that rocked the city, Schundler won over many Democratic voters for his no-nonsense approach to government. Jersey City is a small city, and the likable Schundler could meet and communicate easily with constituents.

But in a statewide race to win millions of voters, different political skills are needed. A politician running for high office needs to have trusted lieutenants who can act on behalf of their candidate.

Though Schundler had been waiting in the wings to run for governor for some time, he had not taken the time to build a statewide network of supporters.

Schundler was not good at the mechanics of politics. He viewed politics as an arena of ideas. But politics is also about people and motivating them and giving them an incentive to vote for you. Democrats understand this better.

Schundler's deficiencies as a politician, not his views, hurt him and – along with the sagging economy – cost him the election.

Virginia

In recent years this state has been solidly Republican. It went for Bush in 2000 and has had successive Republican governors.

The loss of the state to Democrat Mark Warner is a bad omen for Republicans in congressional races next year.

Voters are voting their pocketbooks. The recession is hurting, and voters are blaming the party in the White House.

This could have been avoided. We all know that the current recession clearly began under Clinton-Gore, with Bush simply inheriting the economic malaise.

But the Bush administration doesn't want to "point fingers."

Republicans and White House officials should have been out front calling the recession the "Clinton-Gore recession" earlier this year.

But instead of explaining to voters who actually was responsible for the recession, the Bush administration has been making unbelievable claims predicting a quick recovery.

This is a bad move; voters will blame the current administration even more if these expectations are not met.

By refusing to place the blame where it belongs, the Republicans and President Bush gave the Democrats a free pass. The Republicans are assuming responsibility for an economic mess they inherited.

What's Next?

The same thinking that said it was better for the Republicans not to hold the Clintons accountable for their misdeeds, for their sale of pardons, etc., is at play here again.

Such absurd thinking has led to Republican losses today, with more to come.

Contrary to what liberal Schneider is claiming, the results of the election do not constitute a mandate for more government and more taxes.

Instead, the public wants leadership, and by allowing the Democrats to define our recent history and to set the agenda, the Republicans are not leading.

They will most assuredly lose the House and increase the Democratic majority in the Senate unless they demonstrate leadership.

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