Free Republic

...Those who say that Mr. Bush's campaign for global democracy is overreaching (again, including this writer) should also note that democ- ratization is a thread that runs through American history. One of President Wilson's goals in World War I was to make the world safe for democracy. That is not quite the same thing as making it democratic, but it's a big step. Even before Pearl Harbor, in the State of the Union message in January, 1941, President Roosevelt proclaimed a goal of ensuring "four essential human freedoms." They were freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and...

Since we can't post from Bloomberg you can read the article here Gorbachev Praises Bush's Father and Clintons, Scolds McCain

Bill Clinton is building on Jimmy Carter's example and creating a new paradigm for ex-presidents. They're ba-aack. Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush, America's political odd couple, are teaming up for another big roadshow, this time to raise money for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Last week, they stood shoulder to shoulder with President George W. Bush in the Oval Office, the 59-year-old Clinton now completely gray and looking a bit fragile, and the 81-year-old Bush looking stooped and a bit weary. Later the pair appeared together in Houston, chatting with evacuees at the Astrodome and the Reliant Center Arena....

WASHINGTON (AFP) - More than 122 million Americans, or 60.7 percent of registered voters, cast ballots in the November 2 presidential election, which saw US President George W. Bush win a second four-year term, a new study showed. The showing marked the highest turnout for a US presidential election since 1968. According to the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, Bush secured some 62 million votes, or 50.8 percent of the ballots -- an increase of 11.5 million over his showing in 2000. His challenger, Democrat John Kerry, garnered more than 59 million votes (48.3 percent), or eight...

WASHINGTON - President Bush's second inauguration will cost tens of millions of dollars — $40 million alone in private donations for the balls, parade and other invitation-only parties. With that kind of money, what could you buy? _200 armored Humvees with the best armor for troops in Iraq. _Vaccinations and preventive health care for 22 million children in regions devastated by the tsunami. _A down payment on the nation's deficit, which hit a record-breaking $412 billion last year. _Two years' salary for the Mets' new center fielder Carlos Beltran, or all of pitcher Randy Johnson's contract extension with the New...

Too Nice for His Own Good? Neil Cavuto Friday, June 18, 2004 I've discovered something in the Bush family genes that could, again, be their undoing. They're too nice. Now I know how angry liberals will no doubt respond to my summation, but I stand by it. And here's why. Find me a public moment, any moment, when either George Bush I or George Bush II has really lit into his critics. About the most worked up I saw the old man get was on broccoli and how he hated it. I remember thinking then, "This boy's got some Italian...

Securing the Future of Conservatism Jerry Falwell Thursday, May 27, 2004 What do you get when you cross Jesse Helms, Jerry Falwell and a plethora of college students who are anxious to impact the culture with our time-honored conservative values? Well, if you ask Sen. Hillary Clinton she’d likely tell you that it is further evidence of a “vast right-wing conspiracy” that is out to destroy her husband’s so-called legacy and steer the nation toward mindless servitude to Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. (Maybe I should write the Democrats’ talking points.) But the correct answer is: The new Helms...

Here we go again Posted: December 10, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc. A close read of President Bush's November addresses at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington and at the Whitehall Palace in London leads a traditionalist almost to despair. George Bush did not write this democratist drivel. This is the kind of messianic rhetoric he probably never heard before he became president. Who is putting these words in his mouth? For if George Bush truly intends to lead a "global democratic revolution," and convert not only Iraq but the whole Middle East to democracy,...

Bush, Nixon & LBJ Posted: December 8, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc. Re-election year is shaping up as positively for George W. Bush as it did for LBJ in 1964 and Richard Nixon in 1972. Recall: Both LBJ and Nixon had engineered surging economies for the election year. Both held the face cards in foreign policy in wartime, with electorates wary of the perceived radicalism of their rivals. Both were facing opponents, Barry Goldwater and George McGovern, who had been luridly painted as outside the mainstream. And both benefited from an opposition party polarized over its...

If only President Bush had listened to Bill Clinton. The former president, who is now the second-guesser in chief, told an audience the other day that he had warned President Bush about Osama bin Laden in an "exit interview" as he left office in early 2001. "In his campaign, Bush said that he thought the biggest security issue was Iraq and national missile defense," Clinton said. "I told him that in my opinion, the biggest security problem was Osama bin Laden." Oh, the Delphic wisdom of the Arkansas bubba! He's a Metternich with an eye for the interns. Clinton was...

Imperial wars, then & now Posted: August 13, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc. Having found neither weapons of mass destruction nor a link to 9-11, the White House has retreated into its fallback position. It now defends Operation Iraqi Freedom as a necessary war to rid the Middle East of a brutal dictatorship and replace it with a democracy. That is, this was a war of democratic imperialism, as some of us said all along. The neocons exploited America's rage after 9-11 and steered the president into invading Iraq, in order to reshape its political system...

Who killed California? Posted: July 30, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc. With Gov. Gray Davis facing recall, a budget $38 billion in deficit, and a bond rating dropped three notches by Standard & Poor's to near junk-bond status, the lowest of all 50 states, the Golden State is no more. Who killed the goose that laid the golden eggs? Certainly, Davis, who misled voters about the gravity of his budget crisis in 2002, and won re-election by demonizing his GOP rivals, deserves his 20 percent approval rating. But Gray Davis did not kill California. The United...