What His Friends Are Saying

Bush, Blair in 2006 -- Picture courtesy Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
In President Bush's waning days, things could definitely be going better. The 21,000 Iraq surge now has to be bolstered by 13,000 National Guard troops coming from 4 different brigades. They'll serve additional 1 year tours in Iraq. Given all this bolstering, how is the surge working so far? Well, from what I've read it helps suppress violence in troops' immediate locales. Is there an orderly transition to new government or a 'new way of thinking'? Hardly. We've achieved no more than previously, when troop levels were more elevated in Iraq.

Now comes an article by columnist Carl Leubsdorf. It seems that Bush strategist and pollster Matt Dowd is down on Bush. Dowd recently told the New York Times that Bush is a divider, not a uniter. He's ignored all rational input on Iraq and has a take-it-or-leave-it mentality. The Bush spokespeople have attributed Dowd's negativity to personal problems -- a difficult divorce, and death of an infant daughter. Also, his young adult son is about to pack off to Iraq. Dowd admits to the problems, but says they actually help to inform his opinion of Bush from the standpoint of husband and father. Dowd says that California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger sets a much better example for electable, reasonable Republicans than Bush does.

Leubsdorf further reports more 'slams' in the Book of Bush Slams. Conservative activist Vic Gold is a friend of Bush's father, Bush 41. Gold has come out with a book entitled Invasion of the Party Snatchers: How the Holy-Rollers and the Neo-Cons Destroyed the GOP. Gold is appalled by W. Bush and describes him as 'Dan Quayle in cowboy boots'. He further describes him as a weak link, and the most out-of-touch president in modern times.

To people who voted for Bush in 2004, I can only query "Are you glad you voted for him?” Be honest. I know you had the bumper sticker that said "W -- I can't wait to vote for him again". Sometimes we buy a lemon -- seventeen warranty repairs won't fix what's wrong. I haven't even seen a GOP nominee that approaches the nasty close-minded divisiveness of W. Bush, so I'm feeling a bit more optimistic about 2008, no matter which party wins. We’ve had other Presidents that varied from mediocre to bad. Carter gave us inflation and sky high interest rates, and yet the problems of his administration cleared away like a summer storm. You might credit Reagan for part of that, and you might also say that nothing under Carter’s watch was such a mess that it couldn’t be cleaned up with a little elbow grease and a change in policy wonks. Iraq? That may just be a gift that keeps on giving, and we’ll know who to thank for it.

© 2007 blogSpotter