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Bush press secretary Karen Hughes rocked official Washington in late October with allegations that George W. Bush's 2000 campaign staff were themselves responsible for rumors that the governor had, at some time in his past, used cocaine. Hughes dropped this revelation while appearing on Fox News Sunday with anchor Tony Snow. According to Hughes, Bush campaign strategists recognized early in the campaign that in the post-Clinton years, successful politicians would need to demonstrate some major weakness or flaw which would allow the electorate to feel superior to the individual for whom they were voting. "Clinton has for eight years built his political power by demonstrating behavior which the average voter could look at and say, 'Hey, at least I'm not that creepy,'" Hughes told Snow, "and we determined that if we were going to succeed, we would have to do the same." Hughes says the campaign's early attempts to attract empathy for Bush by floating rumors of a past drinking problem and possible womanizing fell flat. Explained Hughes, "We were desperate when the 'booze and women' thing didn't gain traction. After eight years of Clinton, it was apparent a little drinking problem and some skirting around wasn't going to cut it. Originally, we had thrown in the drinking problem to explain the womanizing, following what we called the 'Hillary Gambit,' - you know, blame a vast-right wing conspiracy, blame the media for anti-Arkansas bias, blame a dead mother and grandmother - but in our case we would blame booze. We quickly realized that in the post-Clinton years, the Democrats had the sex angle cornered. So, instead, we decided to play up the substance abuse angle. So far, it's worked like a charm." Asked by Snow if she hadn't worried the public might react negatively to a candidate who had used hard drugs, Hughes laughed that, "Tony, I just love you to death but you truly don't 'get it.' For the strategy to work, the sin in question must be worse than, but close to, the sins committed by the average American. Not that many people have done cocaine. But a lot of those Soccer Moms smoked pot in college. By floating the cocaine rumor we allowed all those voters to say, 'Hey, at least I didn't do that.' And then, when the press and Democrats jumped us, the average voter undoubtedly felt the press and Democrats were harshly judging him. At the same time, we were able to whine about the 'politics of personal destruction' being practiced by the media and the Democrats. Not to be immodest, but it was brilliant, if I do say so myself." "So you have no worries the strategy might
harm the campaign?" Snow then asked. "No, no that's not
true at all," Hughes responded seriously, "basically our
concerns were twofold. First, that the Democrats might not rise
to the bait. But that concern was quickly laid to rest when, just
a few days after we floated the rumor, Senator Tom Daschle began
whining to the media that they were giving Bush's personal life
a free pass. Let me tell you, the champagne flowed in the War Room
that night.
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