Use the Bush failures.(Politico)

If President George W. Bush is to win re-election with a mandate, he needs to focus more public attention on his failures.

The temptation for all Presidents and governors running for re-election is to dwell on their accomplishments. A President's campaign staff wants to argue that every challenge has been met, every promise kept, and numerous successes have been racked up.

George Bush Sr. was proud of his record of never having his veto overriden by Congress. He signed and approved every piece of legislation from 1989-92. His White House staff thought this was an asset. On an "Inside the Beltway" scorecard, he had all wins, no losses. But he also had no public record of opposition to any law, tax, or regulation in existence. He became Mr. Status Quo. Yet in November 1992, with a weak economy, the status quo was unacceptable to many voters.

Thanks to the tax cuts championed by his son President George W. Bush in 2001, 2002, and 2003, our economy is now growing--more than 7 percent in the third quarter of 2003. It would be easy and fun to campaign on this record.

But even if growth continues strongly through 2004, there will be pockets of stagnation and downturn. Democrats are already focusing on the manufacturing employment numbers. Back in 1984, Democrats attacked Reagan's job creation boom by falsely claiming that all the new jobs were for hamburger flippers, and that the economic recovery did not extend into our heartland.

President Bush should remind people that none of his tax cuts passed as he wanted them; all were watered down, delayed, made temporary. The Senate only allowed President Bush to cut the double taxation of dividend income in half rather than eliminate it. The death tax repeal and marriage penalty reduction are phased in, and are only temporary.

Should the economy slow in 2004, or employment growth lag in the manufacturing sector, the American people need to know that the Democrats defeated Bush's efforts to make tax cuts larger and permanent. It is understandable that advisers would suggest that President Bush push for a small tax cut in 2004 to maintain his "tax cut every year" record without engendering massive Democratic opposition. But a wiser move would be to ...