Hewitt on the “great Bush comeback”: Despite tanking poll numbers, Bush always “ends up with all the cards and all the money”

Written by Josh Kalven

Published

On Your World, blogger and radio host Hugh Hewitt explained in an interview with Neil Cavuto why those who are currently “calling the president, 'damaged goods' ... can be prepared to eat their own words.” Hewitt predicted that media figures “are going to have to answer to themselves again how they could have been so wrong, again.” During the entire interview, an onscreen caption read, “Coming Soon: The Great Bush Comeback?”

On the March 17 edition of Fox News' Your World With Neil Cavuto, conservative blogger and radio host Hugh Hewitt explained why those who are currently “calling the president, 'damaged goods' ... can be prepared to eat their own words.” After host Cavuto played a video clip montage of media figures noting President Bush's falling poll numbers, Hewitt claimed that “it doesn't really matter” that Bush's approval rating continues to fall. Hewitt declared: “Each time they pronounce him flat on his back, the poker player [Bush] ends up taking all the cards and all the money off of the table.” He further predicted that the media figures Cavuto highlighted at the beginning of the segment “are going to have to answer to themselves again how they could have been so wrong, again.” During the entire interview, an onscreen caption read, “Coming Soon: The Great Bush Comeback?”

From the March 17 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto:

CAVUTO: You don't think the president can make a big comeback? My next guest says, “Think again.” And this is why.

[begin video clip]

CHRIS MATTHEWS (MSNBC host): Devastating new numbers for President Bush today.

KATIE COURIC (NBC News host): President Bush's plunging poll numbers.

ANDERSON COOPER (CNN host): Mr. Bush's popularity is crumbling.

[end video clip]

CAVUTO: Again and again and again. All week long, news personalities all but calling the president, “damaged goods.” My next guest says they can be prepared to eat their own words. From Irvine, California, radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt. Why is that Hugh?

HEWITT: Well Neil, it's a semiannual story now. Every six months or so, the mainstream media comes along with “the Bush presidency is finished.” The funny thing is, they've been doing it every year since the president's first term began in 2001, and each time they pronounce him flat on his back, the poker player ends up taking all the cards and all the money off of the table.

Right now, the poll numbers are bad, but it doesn't really matter to a president who's not facing reelection, and who, in the midterms in November, only has to bring home three or four Republican senators -- and there are great pick-up opportunities in Maryland, in New Jersey, in West Virginia, in Washington state and Michigan. He's going to hold the House and so, once again, I think, he's going to end up 6-for-6 -- twice as governor, twice as president, twice in the midterms, and then, those pundits that you were quoting at the beginning are going to have to answer to themselves again how they could have been so wrong, again.