Posted on 12/07/2003 7:21:11 PM PST by mhking
Based on some of the response to last week's column - about the adulation I felt for President George W. Bush's flying a good distance around the world on Thanksgiving Day to meet, greet and say "thank you" to our soldiers in Iraq - it seems to me the Democratic politicians and card-carriers alike may be on the verge of an emotional breakdown.
Consider, for instance, the following words of anguish in an e-mail from "Dzerres":
"It's embarrassing how far you have your nose up Bush's ---! 150 minutes in Baghdad, flying in under the cover of darkness, serving mashed potatoes to the troops and leaving without even eating the meal (turkey dinner at breakfast, no less) doesn't show leadership. It shows he's a fraiddy-cat.
"He is dodging his responsibilities like he did during Vietnam. And you're eating it up without questioning anything.
"Pathetic."
Boy, there's a lot of anger in them there words.
First off, Dzerres, it's the thought, not the amount of time W spent in Iraq that counts.
And as for Vietnam, I fear that you may have your presidents crossed. I suggest that you look to William Jefferson Clinton when it comes to dodging one's military duty.
But Democrats (which I assume Dzerres calls himself ), especially those under pressure, seldom bother with historical accuracy when they are in the throes of distorting political accuracy.
Of course, I don't want to leave you thinking that all the response to the column was negative. "Agnes P." e-mailed:
"Bless you for the courage to appreciate our president's daring trip to Iraq .... . Today, I thank our dear Lord, who has always blessed the USA with so much for the safe, miraculous trip to demonstrate to our troops that he loves them as he does our country ... ."
Agnes' opinion was echoed in a National Annenberg Election Survey taken four days before and after Thanksgiving. The poll showed that President Bush received an immediate boost in his approval rating after his holiday visit with the soldiers in Iraq.
The overall approval of how President Bush is doing his job increased from 56 percent to 61 percent, with his disapproval rating declining from 41 percent to 36 percent.
After the president's visit to Iraq, 41 percent of Americans polled even thought that things were going in the right direction in the United States, up 5 percentage points from before the holiday.
In spite of what some anguished and embittered Democrats may think and say about President Bush, his ordering Air Force One to fly to Baghdad boosted his popularity factor with voters.
Democrats are so full of themselves that they find it impossible to conceive that they have disconnected, big time, with the American people.
They fail to realize that no amount of Bush-bashing, like that at a recent meeting of disgruntled Democrats at the Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, is going to alter that fact - at least not in time for the presidential election next November.
Nonetheless, another anguished e-mail came to me from "Mrs. L. Highland," who described herself as an "ex-Republican. Recovering."
She wrote to say if she lived to be 120 years old, she would never understand my hero-worship for President Bush.
"... You extol his leadership, but he's not even calling the shot. The look in his eyes is so vacuous and empty that it's hard not to laugh at the deification of this bozo ... ."
Mrs. Highland: Rest assured that by using words like "bozo" and "puppet" to describe our president, you are well on the way to making a full-fledged transformation from a Republican to a Democrat.
That would make a great tagline!!
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