Motivations

[lillibet]

So, I tend to think of myself as fairly realistic about politics. I recognize that money plays a huge part in elections and policy. I understand that everyone I will ever have a chance to elect will be a politician, will have changed their minds about something at some point, will have some dirty laundry and some shady deals in their past. Even when I completely disagree with decisions made by our leaders, I can usually understand why they made them and even why they thought it was a good idea.

But this one mystifies me. Bush has just changed rules put in place during the Clinton era to protect national forest land from logging and road-building. This has the potential to affect up to 60 million acres in a bunch of states. http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/07/13/forest.rules.change.ap.ap/index.html

My question is, why on earth did he do this now? This is a huge give-away to the logging industry, but there aren't that many loggers and they tend to vote Republican anyway. A few months back I heard a piece on NPR about how traditionally Republican hunters, etc. were finally figuring out that Bush is bad news for them and beginning to work against his re-election. He can't afford that. If everyone who voted for Gore votes for Kerry, Bush loses. He can't be pissing off parts of his base. This is the kind of favor one does for one's backers during the first year of the term, not less than four months before an election. This is a time when he needs votes, not money.

Oh well, good for Kerry.

Comments

[lordfeepness.livejournal.com]

I think Bush is doing everything possible to garner as many votes as he can, as he watches his approval ratings plummet. This made me think of the thing about his campaign calling on church members to send in church membership lists--without the consent of the members on the lists. It smacks of desperation. I think we'll see Bush doing a lot of favors for a lot of groups in the coming months.

On the other hand, if he wants to garner votes, why did he become the first president since Herbert Hoover not to speak at the NAACP convention?

[jmspencer.livejournal.com]

Oh well, good for Kerry.

And in the end, isn't that what really matters?

Oh, and did you know that apparently, he's sent "Thank you for your support" letters to at least every member of the MA Bar Association? A friend of mine's dad has voted Democrat for 30 years and has gotten TWO autographed pictures of Dubya thanking him. Apparently they assume all lawyers are Reupblicans.

doin' it for the money

[bhos.livejournal.com]

I think it's about the money. I've been following efforts to preserve the redwoods and the logging industry has been a huge campaign contributor to anyone who supports them (Democratic or Republican). I imagine that at this time money is more important to Bush than pissing off environmentalists who weren't going to vote for him anyways.

jonathan

[navrins]

Is it completely implausible that he actually believes it's the right thing to do?

I don't know. Just saying.