For Bush, winning issue of drug plan is looking more like a liability.

Publication: South Florida Sun-Sentinel (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service)

Bookmark this article Print this article Link to this article Email this article Digg It! Add to del.icio.us RSS

COPYRIGHT 2004 South Florida Sun-Sentinal

Byline: William E. Gibson

WASHINGTON _ Hit with accusations from the left and the right, the Bush administration's attempts to promote a new prescription-drug program are colliding with skeptical reactions from senior citizens and controversies about the way it was sold to Congress.

The blowup on the Medicare front, along with ongoing inquiries into the administration's handling of intelligence information leading up to the war in Iraq, have raised questions about President Bush's credibility just when he is plunging into a re-election campaign.

"If you take what is happening with Medicare and add it to the credibility problems about the war, you've got this larger issue about the administration and truth-telling. No doubt that's a political problem," said Jonathan Oberlander, associate professor of social medicine at the University of North Carolina and the author of "The Political Life of Medicare."

"This has not gone according to script. This drug bill was going to secure Florida for Republicans (in the election), and maybe give them a big bounce. And it is not going according to plan. The more senior citizens learn about it, the less they like the bill."

Controversial from the start, the...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.