William Safire Interviews Nixon on Bush

I suppose this could be put in Original Writing, but we should have more fun with it here. Posted in its entirety, with the URL at the bottom.

" Nixon on Bush
>
> July 7, 2003
> By WILLIAM SAFIRE
>
>
> Reached by cellphone in purgatory, where he is still being
> cleansed of his sin of imposing wage and price controls,
> Richard Nixon agreed to give his former speechwriter an
> analysis of the political strategy of the present occupant
> of the Oval Office.
>
> Q: With unemployment rising and the federal deficit
> ballooning - and all the Democratic candidates accusing him
> of having gone to war under false pretenses - how come
> Bush's approval rating hasn't nose-dived?
>
> RN: Because he keeps his eye on the ball in center court.
> He's a war president fighting a popular war and doesn't let
> anybody forget he's winning. Afghanistan and Iraq are the
> first two battles in that war on terror. The more the
> elites here and in Europe holler, the solider the Bush
> support gets.
>
> Q: But he's obviously moving to the political center, with
> his prescription drug entitlement and his education
> spending and the billions for AIDS in Africa - and he even
> liked the court's split decision on affirmative action.
> What's going to happen to his core support?
>
> RN: Your conservative base will forgive you all kinds of
> liberal lurching if they know you're reliable on the one
> big thing. Look at me - I gave the lefties the first real
> school desegregation, funded the arts, offered a guaranteed
> annual wage, went for all that environmental garbage. And
> members of my political base never worried - hell, they
> helped re-elect me in a landslide - because they knew I
> always had my eye on one great crusade: anti-Communism.
>
> Q: And the equivalent for Bush is his pursuit of Al Qaeda?
> You think that's what is keeping together the social
> conservatives, the economic conservatives, the libertarian
> fringe, all of us?
>
> RN: You've been too long at The Times, Bill. Taking charge
> of the world will dominate the center, intimidate all but
> the looniest left and keep him high in the polls. But the
> way Bush protects his base on the right - the voters he can
> never afford to lose - is to continually hammer away on tax
> cuts.
>
> Q: That would appeal to the business types, and the upper
> middle class in suburbia, but what attraction does a tax
> cut have for the religious right? What's it got to do with
> abortion, with same-sex marriage and all the social issues
> that turn out the troops?
>
> RN: Tax cuts and terrorism - and his just not being Clinton
> - will keep 'em in line. Add to that the evangelicals' love
> affair with Israel, where George W. is a world apart from
> his old man. And toss in some faith-based programs that
> don't cost much but show his heart's in the right place.
> Cut the death tax and dividend tax and jack up the child
> credit this year, and campaign next year on making them
> permanent, and Bush is home free.
>
> Q: But won't that cause a huge deficit and scare the
> economic conservatives?
>
> RN: Let me say this about that. When the jobless rate is
> going up, to hell with the deficit. I take a class here
> from John Maynard Keynes, who's dead in the long run, just
> like he said. What will the Democrats do, try to raise
> taxes just before the election? Never happen. And whenever
> the economy turns, Bush can say his tax cuts did it.
>
> Q: What's your media advice to Bush?
>
> RN: Continue with no
> formal press conferences; he's killed that tradition and
> you guys have given up nagging. Come the late fall, he
> should make a big vision speech at some dramatic occasion
> like Saddam's funeral, or Bin Laden's, or a Middle East
> breakthrough, or some love fest with Blair and Chirac and
> Schröder and the new Iraqi leader.
>
> Q: What's the theme?
>
> RN: Invite the world to join the U.S. in seeking a new
> generation of freedom. Not just anti-terror, but
> pro-democracy. Refine the white paper on pre-emption, which
> is just a response to a present danger, and think big, as
> Woodrow Wilson did: explore the criteria for constructive
> intervention and the limits of tyrannical sovereignty. Get
> the grand design from Rummy and Cheney - they started out
> with me, you know.
>
> Q: You're fading, but quickly - what's your reading of the
> Democratic field?
>
> RN: Kerry can't smile and Lieberman smiles too much.
> Gephardt has no eyebrows and Edwards comes across as
> tricky. Dean would be a godsend for us, blowing his cool in
> debate. Joe Biden would give Bush the most trouble, but
> he's waiting too long. Gotta run to Keynes's class. Where's
> the damn button to turn this thing off?
>
>
>
Nixon on Bush