Karl Rove, also known as "Bush's brain," will not be greatly missed in Washington except by Democrats, who give him much of the credit for their own revival, and by the president, whose affectionate nickname for his political strategist is "turd blossom." Rove dreamed of establishing a Republican coalition that would keep power for a generation. For a while his goal seemed to be within reach; from 2002 to 2004, most polls found that more voters identified themselves as Republicans than as Democrats. Not any more. Both Gallup and Harris conducted probes into party identification this year. Harris concluded that 9 per cent more people called themselves Democrats at the end of 2006 than called themselves Republicans: the biggest Democrat advantage since 1998. Gallup found 50.4 per cent identifying as Democrats or leaning Democratic, and 40.2 per cent as Republicans or leaning Republican—the first time that Democrats have topped 50 per cent since the poll started in 1991. Rove's hopes of winning over Hispanics have also been dashed with the defeat of the immigration bill. A recent Gallup survey focusing on ethnic minorities found a heavy swing to Democrats, with Hillary Clinton crushing Rudy Giuliani by 65 to 33 per cent. If that kind of margin lasts until next year's election, the Republicans will lose the once safe state of Arizona. Even the most devoted are losing faith. The latest Pew Research Centre survey finds just 44 per cent of white evangelical Protestants approving of Bush's performance, less than half the score in late 2001.
Blame Greenspan
It's ironic that Alan Greenspan's book The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World comes out in September, just as the chorus of accusations against him is rising to a crescendo. The global spread of the meltdown in America's sub-prime mortgage sector and the sudden liquidity freeze are being laid at the door of the former Fed chairman. There have been columns in Forbes magazine headlined "Blame Greenspan" and claiming that "Our present misery dates back to Alan Greenspan's easy money policy of a few years ago." The Wall Street Journal's Financial Insight column thundered: "the housing bubble, unregulated hedge funds and opaque financial markets are part of Mr Greenspan's legacy." Thestreet.com reminded its subscribers of a speech made by Greenspan in 2004, in which he claimed that rising energy prices "should prove short-lived." Even some of Greenspan's fellow Fed governors chimed in. Edward Gramlich said that seven years ago, when predatory lending first became an issue, he proposed to Greenspan that the Fed send examiners into the offices of consumer-finance lenders that were attached to Fed-regulated banks. You might have thought that Greenspan, who was America's central banker for 18 years, had never warned against "irrational exuberance."
But with an $8.5m advance for The Age of Turbulence and lectures that cost $100,000 a time, Greenspan might be excused a little rational exuberance. Interestingly, these days he seems to be basing his financial future on foreigners. His book is being published by Penguin, owned by Britain's Pearson group, and his steady income comes from the Germans—he advises the Munich-based Allianz Group and Deutsche Bank's corporate and investment banking unit.
Apparently, Greenspan starts his book with 9/11, the three-day closure of Wall Street and his fear that the global economy would crumble along with the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. That is the prelude to the case for his defence: that he had to cut interest rates and keep them low to save the system.
John McCain's private zoo
George Washington had a parrot and Teddy Roosevelt had a garter snake. Reagan had a King Charles spaniel and Bush the elder had Millie, a springer spaniel who wrote a bestselling book. Bill Clinton had Socks the cat and Hillary now has a brown labrador called Seamus. Harry Truman used to say, "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog." Now it seems that if you want to be president, get a pet. Barack Obama has been coerced into it by his daughters, who said he could only run for the White House if they got a dog—although he has yet to keep his side of the deal. Republican Sam Brownback has two cats, as does Democrat Bill Richardson, but Brownback also has a labrador and a dachshund. Republican candidate Mike Huckabee will chat for hours about his black hunting dog Jet. Rudy Giuliani and Democrat Chris Dodd are failures in the pet primary, but John McCain more than makes up for them with his private zoo of two turtles, a parakeet, a ferret, two dogs, a cat and a saltwater aquarium with 13 fish. (This information is courtesy of the Presidential Pets Museum in Annapolis, whose motto is "Responsible pet ownership starts at the top.") Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, boasts only his wife's two horses. He used to have a dog, but it died. He recently confessed that he once put the dog in a pet carrier and kept it on the roof rack of his car when driving 12 hours from Boston to a holiday in Canada. There goes the pet vote.
