Change of heartland
On the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, many Indianians are
no longer strongly behind the war
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | March 19, 2006
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The third anniversary of the Iraq invasion
unleashed a surge of pessimism at a local farmers' market here, where
stalwart Republicans, standing amid aisles of produce and miracle
cures, said President Bush has messed up a war that looks more like
Vietnam every day.
''It's chaos," said Roger Madaras, who voted twice for Bush. ''How many
more people are going to be killed? We were going in to free the people
of Iraq, but as far as I'm concerned, a lot of them are worse off today
than they were under the dictatorship."
Madaras, the owner of a plumbing company, said he believed Bush when
the president declared major combat to be over in May 2003, and is
''disgusted" that Bush's rhetoric was hollow. And he is far from alone.
Support for Bush and his handling of Iraq is sharply eroding across the
American heartland, where the overcast skies and the muddy fields of
late winter matched a sense of gloom about Bush and the war.
This month, the Indianapolis Star released poll findings that Bush's
approval rating among Indiana voters stood at 37 percent -- a drop of
18 points over the past year. The numbers echoed national polls, but
were particularly shocking in a state that has not voted for a
Democratic presidential candidate since 1964, and where Democratic
presidential contenders often do not bother to campaign.
''A 37 percent approval rating in Indiana for a Republican president is
unheard of," said Brian Howey, who runs a newsletter for Indiana state
political insiders. ''Those are Bill Clinton or John Kerry numbers in
Indiana. So there is something seriously awry going on right now."
In scattered rural diners and small-town restaurants adorned with
9/11-vintage American flag posters, support for the troops remains
high. But many in Indiana also say the war has not turned out the way
they thought it would three years ago, and they question whether Bush
has what it takes to lead the troops into a happy ending.
Standing behind the counter where she sells bird houses and seed at the
farmers' market, Beverly Beisel said she is increasingly fearful that
Iraq will inevitably fall apart as soon as US soldiers leave -- making
a mockery of the deaths sustained until then.
''It's not going well, that's for sure," Beisel said. ''I don't like
that fact that we started it. I thought Bush was actually going after
the terrorists, wherever they were. We thought they had weapons that
they were hiding."
Beisel said she doesn't blame Bush because ''he can only deal with the
intelligence he was given" and still supports him because she opposes
abortion. But she added that plenty of her friends think ''we should
get out of there and they're probably sorry they voted for him."
Drinking coffee at Louie's Caf=E9 in LaPorte, Ken Schreiber, who
commands respect among the regulars because he coached the local high
school baseball team to seven state championships, said he doesn't
understand why the administration never sent enough troops in to
stabilize Iraq's security.
Schreiber said he primarily blames the ''liberal media" and ''partisan
politics" for the president's free-falling poll numbers. But he also
blames Vice President ***** Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
for giving Bush ''some bad advice" about how Iraqis would ''kiss our
feet" for ridding them of Hussein.
''I'm frustrated like everyone else is frustrated," he said. ''It's a
lingering war like Vietnam. But I still don't think it was a mistake to
go in."
As more and more Hoosiers find themselves making the comparison that
only liberals and antiwar protesters made a year ago -- Iraq is like
Vietnam -- some say they are also starting to doubt Bush's competence
to protect America from terrorism on the home front.
John Lackman, a retired manager at an aircraft wheels and brakes
factory who was eating breakfast at a table near Schreiber, said the
slow federal response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster last year gave
many pause.
''That New Orleans situation just piled it on top of the Iraq War,"
Lackman said. ''The security issue is paramount in everyone's mind. If
they couldn't respond adequately to that situation, how are they going
to respond if there's a dirty bomb?"
Others sharply disagreed, saying local officials were primarily to
blame for the New Orleans disaster. But there was nearly unanimous
incredulity across Indiana at Bush's support for a deal that would have
put a Dubai company in charge of six US ports.
Many connected the Dubai ports row to a state controversy -- Republican
Governor Mitch Daniels's efforts to lease the Indiana Toll Road to a
foreign firm for the next 75 years. Support for Daniels, a former top
aide to Bush, is just as low as it is for the president.
''People don't think Indiana should sell its toll road to foreigners,
and they don't want someone with a turban running our ports," said
Denny Thomas, a retired trucker sitting near video poker machines at
the back of a smoke-filled tobacco bar in LaPorte.
Daniels, who ran in 2004 on the slogan ''My Man Mitch," as Bush once
referred to him, has also drawn fire for ramming through a law
requiring Indiana to join the rest of the country on daylight saving
time. The measure is wildly unpopular in rural areas.
Pouring coffee behind the bar of Allie's Caf=E9 in South Bend,
restaurant owner Chuck Sulok -- a self-declared ''partisan supporter"
of both Bush and Daniels -- said he fears what the ''double whammy" of
Bush's and Daniels's unpopularity could do in the coming election.
If Democrats can pick up 15 seats, they can retake control of the US
House of Representatives for the first time since the Republican tidal
wave of 1994, when the GOP picked up 54 seats. Sulok says today's
atmosphere in Indiana reminds him of 1994 in reverse.
''The mid-term elections are coming and it scares me to death, speaking
as a partisan Republican," he said. ''There's a difference between
regular dissatisfaction and a dissent that will move an election.
There's that feeling in the air."
Joe Donnelly hopes Sulok's fears are well-founded. Donnelly, a local
lawyer, is running for Congress against a Republican incumbent, Chris
Chocola, in a rematch from 2004. He lost last time by 9 points -- but
that was when the Iraq War was still young.
Donnelly said the drop in support for Bush and his handling of the war
could swing the election his way, accusing Chocola of being a ''rubber
stamp" for the administration. Chocola, whose campaign netted $600,000
in a Bush-headlined fund-raiser in February, did not respond to an
interview request.
''Truly, everyone out here wants the Iraq mission to succeed," Donnelly
said. ''But everyone is becoming more concerned and uncomfortable. What
we need are Congress people who will ask President Bush tough
questions, not be rubber stamps."
John Roos, a political science professor at the University of Notre
Dame, said the dissatisfaction with Bush's record in Iraq might hand
the 2006 election to Democrats by persuading disgruntled Republicans
across the American heartland to stay home.
''It's not that they have become Democrats, and it's not that they have
decided the war on Iraq and especially the war on terrorism is wrong,"
Roos said. ''The people of Indiana just think [Bush] is not very good
at being president."
Waiting to be seated at Allie's Caf=E9, Lee Connett, a retired
automotive engineer, said he wondered about the Iraq War from the
beginning. He thought it seemed like a diversion from the hunt for the
Al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden.
But he voted for Bush anyway because he couldn't stand Kerry, the
Democratic nominee. Now, he said, as it becomes ever more clear that
''Bush doesn't have a plan" for Iraq, he doesn't know what he should
do.
''I voted for Bush in 2000 and in 2004 . . . because he seemed like the
lesser of two evils as I saw it at the time," Connett said. ''How could
anyone know he was going to do what he's done? He's not settled
anything in Iraq and we're getting no clue as to what the outcome is
going to be."
All the talk lately about Bush and the problems with Iraq bemuses Susan
Grimes, a waitress at the South Junction Caf=E9, a lonely outpost at the
intersection of state roads 6 and 35. Grimes said listening to her
customers complain has turned her off politics.
''I hear all these people come in and say: 'That President Bush, we got
to get that guy out of there.' But you ask them who they voted for, and
they hush up because they were the ones who voted him in. He's their
boy."
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