John Geer
John Geer
credit economy given prosperity public rewards
Given that the economy is doing pretty well, he really is not getting any credit for it. That's because we're at war. The public rewards peace, prosperity and (political) moderation. Right now he's got one of those things going for him.
address attention chance change iraq obviously problem provides short situation state structural undo union
The State of the Union address obviously provides him the chance to get the attention of the American public. But it is not going to undo the structural problem he faces. You have a situation in Iraq that is not going to get better in the short term. ... I see him not having a really big change in popularity.
bush continues defense further gain keeps playing rather
It just keeps Bush further on the defensive. He continues playing defense rather than offense, and he can't gain traction on anything.
candidates care city decided decision people politics strategic sure time vibrant
Candidates are strategic about their decision to run. I'm sure there are people in the city of Murfreesboro, as vibrant as it is, who care about politics and would like to be mayor. They've just decided this isn't the right time to run.
gang kinds looking signals various
The 'inside the beltway' gang is looking for various kinds of signals about who's doing well and who's not doing well.
among complaints complaints-and-complaining forward somebody stepped
If there had been a lot of complaints about things, somebody else among those 81,000 would have stepped forward to run.