Dick Morris

Calling George W. Bush a modern-day Jimmy Carter, Dick Morris says he has just the tonic to get the administration back on track:

Really focus on energy issues: Come out for massive investment in ethanol production, delivery and vehicles, and more: retrofitting all gas stations for ethanol and hydrogen; a new push for nuclear power; heavy investment in clean coal technology, burying the carbon dioxide. Truly lead the nation away from petroleum.

Admit that global warming is happening, and launch major new programs to curb it: Many are the same measures as can solve our energy dependence. But add in mandatory upgrading of power plants to cut emissions and major investment in solar and bio-mass energy.

Build a wall, but let guest workers in: Right-wingers want a wall on our southern border; they'd accept a guest-worker program if we could regulate our own borders. Latinos would accept a wall if there were a chance for immigrants to do legal work and a path to citizenship. Give both what they want, and lead the country into a grand compromise.

Put the drug fight front and center: Demand drug testing in schools with parental consent, and tax incentives for workplace drug testing. Link cocaine to terrorism, and build a national consensus for tough measures to cut demand.

Once upon a time Dick Morris was a brilliant political consultant, but this is some of the dumbest advice I have ever heard. With the possible exception of the third point, how many of these issues really resonate among voters? What is a bigger concern to the average American:

* The war in Iraq or the availability of ethanol refueling stations?

* Global warming or the rising cost of health care?

* Drugs in schools or the fact that so many schools don't work? Or the fact that college tuition continues to rocket into the stratosphere?

* Illegal immigration or a tax code that is so byzantine that millions of Americans pay someone else to do them?

Somehow I don't see more government control -- as Morris advocates -- as the solution to any of Bush's political ills.