Turning a Phrase, Not a Corner

By David Kusnet, AlterNet. Posted August 9, 2004.

Just as the Democratic Convention was wrapping up in Boston, President Bush's handlers announced that he'd be hitting the campaign trail with an amped-up stump speech.

Bush's new speech would have two new phrases – "turning the corner" and "results matter." He'd say America is "turning the corner" on the economy and the Iraq War. And he'd show how he had gotten things done as president, pointing out that Kerry hadn't done much as Senator, and conclude with "results matter."

One week later, Bush's speech hasn't transformed the campaign. At least not in the ways he wanted. Bush's catch-phrases have made headlines – mostly, when Kerry has used them to counterpunch against Bush.

When both candidates were campaigning a few blocks away from each other in Davenport, Iowa on August 4, Kerry joked that Bush could attend the Democrats' economic forum "if he were just willing to turn the corner." More seriously, in an address on Thursday at the UNITY 2004 Journalists of Color Conference in Washington, D.C., Kerry declared: "Just saying we're turning the corner on the war, on terror, on jobs, on opportunity, and on one America doesn't make it so."

Meanwhile, Bush and his handlers have yet to craft a stump speech that uses the "turning the corner" and "results matter" – or any other catch-phrases – to make a compelling case for his re-election.

For all the hype announcing his new stump speech, those two phrases only appear towards the middle of the remarks he delivered, virtually word-for-word, at rallies last weekend in the swing states of Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Reciting a litany of issues where he says he'll continue to "make progress" during a second term, Bush says: "We are turning the corner, and we're not turning back." He says this about "improving public schools," "giving Americans more choices about their health care," and – halfway through the speech – "creating jobs for America's workers," but not about several other issues that he mentions, including energy, the environment, and job training. As for "results matter," Bush only uses that phrase towards the end of the speech, about jobs, education, and the war on terrorism.

Why does Bush's speech bury the very points his spinners told the news media that he was going to make? The problem isn't Bush's rhetoric; it's his record.

Presidents in trouble tend to blame their speechwriters, and, if he continues to trail Kerry, he may fire some current staffers and hire some new ones. (Veteran Republican writer Peggy Noonan announced Thursday that she is taking a leave from her career as a pundit to help her party, adding that she doesn't think Bush needs her help.) But Bush already has a talented team of wordsmiths who rely on the short words and simple sentences that he is most comfortable using – and that make for the most effective oratory, anyway.

Instead, the problem is that Bush has presided over an economy where 1.8 million private-sector jobs have vanished, 3.7 million Americans have lost their health coverage, and wage increases have fallen behind the rising the cost of living. After rallying Americans in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and defeating the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, Bush led the nation into the war in Iraq without an exit strategy or even a plausible explanation.

Thus, he can't make the classic case for re-electing a president: The country is in better shape than when I took office, and I'll make things even better if you give me another four years. For all the simplicity that appeals to Bush and his media adviser Karen Hughes, slogans such as "We're turning the corner, and we're not turning back" can boomerang on Bush, just as they did this week. His opponents can ask "Why not turn back" to the country's condition before Bush took office – peace, prosperity, and a nation that was at least a little less polarized? And what are we turning the corner on? The problems Bush inherited? Or those he himself presided over, such as the growing federal deficit and rising unemployment?

These realities – and not rhetorical shortcomings – explain why Bush's new stump speech is so scattershot. Among other techniques, he tries:

David Kusnet was chief speechwriter for former President Bill Clinton from 1992 through 1994. He is the author of "Speaking American: How the Democrats Can Win in the Nineties."

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