My Problems with Bush

[robin]

President Bush saw what happened to Daddy. He got the image of more
moderate than Reagain, and the hard-right conservatives (Limbaugh
etc), turned against him. By 1992 it was too late. The talk-show
hosts, constantly (loudly) denouncing and defaming the "liberal"
President Bush, pretending they woud vote for Perot, by the general
election the Democrats won over a bunch of independent voters, won
back their own industrial base, and Clinton won the election.

Eight years later, Bush JUNIOR vowed to keep the peace with his own
hard right. Known in Texas as a moderate governor, in Washington Bush
found the hostility to be so intense there was never a chance for bi-
partisanship. His promise to bring us together was dead in the water.

The new President became a political hostage, in a way, of his own
hard right. It was his father, the former President, who urged him to
make Colin Powell Secretary of State. After Madelein Albright, Powell
looks indeed to have been a worthy match.

But the Republican hard-core right wing had always been highly
suspicious of Colon Powell. They were gunning for him from day one.
Powell was indeed exceptional, and in retrospect he appears to have
been right, either through study or intuition, time and again. Too
scrupulous to go public with dissent, or to make hay out of his
loyalty, he seems to have been doomed from the start.

In fact, it was the immolation of Powell (after the DMD debacle) that
paved the way for the Bush alliance with his hard right.

My opinion is that the country was worse off because of the narrowing
into a partisan agenda.

For one thing, politics at home became a caricature of the kind of
honesty we should demand of our leaders. A constant refrain of "it
wont cost you" became a Republican watchword. "Only Democrats raise
taxes."

Where's the simple honesty that "There's no such thing as a free
lunch."

Where's the simple honesty of "I have nothing to offer England but
blood, sweat, toil, tears."

Republicans honed to perfection the slighly dishonest bribing of
voters: "You'll get your benefits, your rescues, your disaster relief,
but nobody has to pay for it."

They even rolled out the hired guns, the experts and egg-heads to back
them up. "The economy will GROW into so much prosperity that nobody
will have to pay for it."

Now I do not deny that Bush was right about the surge. Or at least he
was lucky he finally got Petraeus. Bing West points out a long list
of strategic blunders under Rumsfield and Cheney. Bush deserves his
share of responsibility for that blinddness (not listening to Rice,
Powell, and Democrats).

But the reality that the surge could work only because a way was found
to reach out to the Sunni side, and reassure the sunni Anbar leaders
that we were not merely anti-Baathist, or pro-Shi-ite (and pro-Iran).
Al Malaki himself (Shia) deserves a fair measure of credit for
restraoning his own allies, the various Shi-ite militias in the south
and eastern region of Iraq.

Getting rid of Colin Powell was a huge mistake, but the President was
reluctant to stand up to his own hard right, and all their animosity
to alternative voices.

[Barry]

No wonder you don't have a job as a commentator or columnist, but have to
spam your BS here.
Don't give up your day job!
"robin" <rs2...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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