Word: bushed
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Clinton had to be credible on traditional Republican issues like crime and taxes in order to be taken seriously on the compassion issues he cared most about," says Al From, president of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. Bush, says From, has the same problem in reverse: "He has to be credible on compassion issues in order to have the rest of his agenda taken seriously...
Among those marveling at the Texas Governor's deft move was the reigning master of deft moves, Bill Clinton. Inside the White House on Wednesday, sources told TIME, the President offered a critique of Bush's speech that included moments of grudging admiration and startled recognition. "He saw himself in Bush," says an adviser. "A whole lot of himself." On Capitol Hill, where House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other G.O.P. bosses were enraged by Bush's words, aides to minority leader Dick Gephardt told Hastert's people, "Get used to it. We've been putting up with this for seven...
...pundits debated whether Bush was trying to move his party to the center or just slapping a happy face on familiar policies, they hauled out the Dick Morris term triangulation, coined by the former Clinton adviser in 1995 to describe the President's strategy of positioning himself above and between Democrats and Republicans in Congress. But Clinton sees Bush's moves as having less in common with triangulation than with Clinton's strategies as a candidate in 1991 and 1992, when he took on the left wing of his party, challenging its hidebound policies on such issues as welfare, taxes...
This second line of spin was not courageous--or true. The speech had been in the works for a month, and principled slaps at the G.O.P. had been in the earliest versions. Indeed, Bush had been saying similar things in milder terms since summer, calculating that he can chide conservatives and woo moderates without losing his right flank. But he knows the primaries aren't over. The only rival gaining on him is Senator John McCain: in New Hampshire he has picked up 13 points in a month, standing at 23% to Bush's 43% in one poll. But McCain...
Beyond the posturing rivals and professional loudmouths, many conservative leaders secretly are not that concerned about what Bush said last week. They know he has a history of offering moderate rhetoric, then coming down solidly in their camp. Two weeks ago, he opposed a G.O.P. plan to delay tax-credit payments to low-income workers, saying his party's leaders shouldn't "balance their budget on the backs of the poor." But he supported the party's $800 billion tax-cut plan, which would require deep cuts in worthy programs aimed at the same people...