Hatred of President Bush is what drives the Democratic candidates for their party’s presidential nomination, says Larry Sabato, the widely respected political observer at the University of Virginia – and he thinks it’s time for President Bush to wake up to that fact and go on the offensive.

“The Democrats have dominated the news media – every channel, every hour, with the exception of the State of the Union address,” he says. “Democrats’ unity of opposition to Bush on every issue has kept the campaign a symphony rather than a cacophony, building toward a crescendo of anti-Bush fervor. The Democrats are pumped. The Bush White House appears blissfully ignorant of that reality, at least early in the campaign season.”

He’s right. Back in 1996, when Bill Clinton was running for re-election, the Democrats started very early in the campaign to spend a lot of money to derail any Republican’s chance of winning. It was the smart thing to do and it worked.

This year it’s important that people be reminded that there are two primary campaigns going on, side-by-side with the Democratic primaries there are also Republican primaries.

But it’s the Democrats who get all the media attention. Every day. Edwards gives his same speech, Kerry gives his same speech, and Dean gives his same speech: “down with America, down with the president” and all the rest of that demagogic claptrap.

The President of the United States, however, gets almost no time at all. If I were the President at this stage, I’d be showing up for the primaries. I would have been in Iowa and New Hampshire, and I’d be in Missouri and South Carolina and every other state holding primaries.

He should show up on primary nights, thank the Republicans who voted for him. and discount what all these people are saying. Instead, what have we been getting? Six hours of “America sucks, the president is a stupid idiot, America sucks.” Six solid hours of that filth.

You get around that by having the President show up on primary night, thank the people who voted for him and set the record straight. Being President, he will get air time and we won’t have to listen to six unbroken hours of slander against him and his party. He can start now to demolish all the untruths, blatant lies and distortions about him being peddled by the Democratic demagogues.

When Senator Kerry attacks the President for being allegedly dominated by all those evil special interests President Bush would have an opportunity to point out that Kerry’s party is totally owned by special interests. They couldn’t exist for one minute without the financial and political support of the trial lawyers, the abortion industry, big labor, the teacher’s unions, the radical environmentalist movement and the rest of the motley crew who own the Democratic party lock, stock and barrel.

What Kerry is saying is that the Republican “special interests,” which is growth and the economy, must go so he can bring his special interests to the White House and pay off the trial lawyers and the abortion industry and all the rest for their support.

All this garbage is all going unanswered and it needs to be rebutted by the President. Five Democrats, three of whom shouldn’t even be in the race, are getting all the publicity bad mouthing the President. He’s getting none.

The American people must be warned that if they vote for John Kerry or any other Democrat the war in the Middle East will end there and begin here. You won’t have to worry about body bags coming back from Iraq because they’ll be coming home from the mall.

Vote for the Democrats and the economy will turn sour. They are anti-business which is where the 401K’ s of millions of middle class Americans are invested. But the Democrats attack the very source of our 401K retirement funds – business. Most of our financial resources are invested in the market, and these people want to ruin the market, ruin the economy and lose the war.

And nobody is in a better position to tell these truths to the American people that President Bush. He should get out there on the campaign trail now.

Mike Reagan, the eldest son of President Ronald Reagan, is heard on more than 200 talk radio stations nationally as part of the Radio America Network. Comments to mereagan@hotmail.com for Mike.