State of the Union: In jeopardy

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ^ | Tuesday, January 20, 2004 | editorial

[Willie Green]

"The message of the president, by whatever motives it may have been dictated, is a performance which ought to alarm all who are anxious for the safety of our government, for the respectability and welfare of our nation. It makes, or aims at making, a most prodigal sacrifice of constitutional energy, of sound principle, and of public interest, to the popularity of one man."

[eskimo]

Know what happened to all those cute little protestors?

There is a huge difference between a sissified protest and a savage defense of liberty.

[woodyinscc]

as well as Club for Growth, are VERY restive under BigSpenderBush's watch.

I wonder why Club for Growth is spending money on ads against the dims?

[Godfollow]

Yep... I hear ya... but it's still either a poke in the eye or engagement... less'n you got a better idea... iff'n ya do, let our President and State Department know, I'm sure they'd be glad to hear from ya...

[section9]

You specialize in conclusions which have no basis in evidence.

Bush's base was perfectly happy WITHOUT 400 Zillion in new Medicare, 14 million "amnestized" illegals, and WITHOUT a space-station Moon/colony Mars.

The Democrats HAVE no center: Kerry will lean left and will self-destruct, and Clark, the Clintooons' choice, is absolutely stark raving mad!

Repeat: your conclusions are delusions.

Trying to reason with the Faithful has its downsides. One of which is having to deal with posts like this.

Of course Bush's base was happy without the extra programs. But campaigns are all about Base Plus, not just the Base. The Rockford Institute Crowd will never be satisfied until Indentured Servitude is reinstated. The Ultras are not where the action is. If the Ultras were where the action was, Pat Buchanan would be President.

You are incorrect to assert, without supporting evidence I might add, that the Democrats have no center. They do. It is on the Left. Successful Democratic campaigns hold the base and move to the center. Successful Republican campaings do the same thing. I see no evidence that Kerry will "self-destruct". If he leans left, it might be enough to get him past Dean to Boston. Clark may be off his meds, but he is no less irresponsible than any of the other Dems.

Please provide supporting evidence for your assertions before accusing me of delusional behavior. Otherwise, I shall have to send you into a room alone....with the Batboy.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[Willie Green]

oh, the tyranny of unreasonable expectations!

Yeah. It's much more pragmatic to compromise and lower our standards. </sarcasm>

Slouching Toward Bush Won't Save Us From Gomorrah

[Sabertooth]

The border. Okay, someone had to give voice to the "Mexicans Under the Bed" subtext that has been plagueing FR these past months. But again, Bush has stolen the center.

Of what, a doughnut?

Most people in this country, in the GOP, and yes, even among active posters in this forum oppose the Bush Amnesty.

Bush has run away from the center on Illegals, and disappeared in the direction of the Democrats.

Word right now is that Bush will drop any mention of Illegals from the SOTU. That would mark a retreat, and an acknowledgement that he's overreached on Amnesty.

If he keeps Amnesty in his speech, and pursues it further, he will lose more votes than he gains over it.

That's hardly claim staked in the center.

Instead, Bush's program is a limited form of amnesty.

It ain't that limited, and any form of Amnesty is political poison.

The voting center will not be, however. They will see Bush's program as restrained compared to what's going to come out of the mouths of Democrats. Again, this will happen as night follows day.

This is wishful thinking. The voting center hates Amnesty, and Bush's plan is an Amnesty. It's not restrained, and won't be perceived as restrained by the center, it will be correctly perceived as out of touch with reality.

Everybody except Lieberman was anti-war. Lieberman is almost history.

You're forgetting Gephardt, who alread is History, but deserves to be remembered as one of the Democrat good guys on the WoT.

[eskimo]

Trying to reason with the Faithful has its downsides. One of which is having to deal with posts like this.

If you find it difficult to deal with posts here you had better reevaluate your position.

[FITZ]

But campaigns are all about Base Plus,

If it's looking like Bush is going to win by a landslide --- then why can't he keep with principles and not worry about Base Plus the far left?

[avenir]

"Otherwise, I shall have to send you into a room alone....with the Batboy."

Or his Mama.

[eskimo]

If it's looking like Bush is going to win by a landslide --- then why can't he keep with principles and not worry about Base Plus the far left?

Because real conservatives will never subscribe to the phony dogma of RINO opportunists or the silly left wing nitwits.

[o_zarkman44]

It isn't that I do not trust the President, I just do not trust the droves of unelected advisors that surround the President. All too often policy decisions are based upon the best information available, which is usually disseminated by those same advisors. Some of the recent proposals like immigration reform seem to be pandering to the same editorials generated by the left that you say he don't read. Also expansion of medicare prescription drug benefits costing hundreds of billions of dollars seem to leave cost controls of those same drugs to the wind. Rewarding the Pharmaceutical companys immediately with incentives, yet the consumer has to wait for over 2 years for any percieved benefit to arrive tells me there are serious flaws in the bill yet to be worked out. This can be considered to be an election year ploy to satisfy the editorial critics as well.

If 80% of Americans disagree with immigration reform proposals by the President, I suggest he start listening or he will be voted out. A viable 3rd party effort unseated his father. There is enough disgust with the current 2 party monopoly in America right now to nurture a
serious challenge that could be GW's undoing. President Bush better listen to the people and listen carefully.
If we the people feel we have been abandoned or alienated in favor of illegal aliens, I will abandon our President, because being independent allows me to pick and choose based on facts, not loyalty.

[WOSG]

Why dont you ask Bork who he's voting for in November, if you bother to quote him approvingly?

[ninenot]

You did NOT answer my first question: where are the Chinese peasants going to get all the firepower necessary to pull off a 'revolution'?

"Sissy protests" are much more "manly" if accompanied by the sound of AK-47's. So---tell us, eskimo!

[AuthenticLiberal]

So, I don't really see why President Bush is proposing something that is not only bad policy, but also potentially bad politics.

Because he is the idiot that the media has portrayed him to be. He has no concept of how to lead and hold a party together. He does not understand that when 75% of society is against a proposal, chances are it is outright stupid. Bush is basically what happens when you get someone with the "punk rocker attitude" of "I don't care what you think, I'll do what *I* want to do" in the white house.

The Republicans in the 1990s had the opportunity to strong-arm through much of the classical liberal and conservative agenda(s). They could have pushed through a balanced budget amendment to the constitution, enacted strict judiciary reforms, term limits, repealed most gun laws and all the stuff most here call for. But they didn't because they're predominantly upper class Americans who have never had to live completely under the laws that the bottom 98.50% have.

Conservatism is fast becoming diluted by people like Bush. The extent of many new Republicans' conservatism is a queasiness about abortion, gay marriage and above average support for the military. There is no principled opposition to big government. It should alarm most conservatives that the Republican Party is moving closer to a neo-fascist platform rather than a conservative platform.

[eskimo]

You did NOT answer my first question: where are the Chinese peasants going to get all the firepower necessary to pull off a 'revolution'?

Who cares about the Chines? Let's talk about the people of America, or are you not interested in them?

[foreverfree]

bump

[KDD]

I don't care for Buchanan.

Or Bush..

Or Dean & Co.

I am beginning to believe that the best that the Conservative can hope for in this country from this Government is gridlock.

We should quit electing lawmakers...we already have too many laws as it is.

[CWOJackson]

Wow...this is like old home week at the pat buchanan school for political satire.

[SuziQ]

If you thought Democrat moves for more government were bad, you ain't seen nothing yet. Look out grandchildren, here it comes.

I'm interested in seeing what kinds of reforms are included in some of these proposals. I hope he'll expend some political capital to cut some of the waste out of government. If the Democrats are screaming about the proposals, he must be doing something right!

[Once-Ler]

The base is being ignored

The base supports Dubya...the fringe is being ignored.