Dubya... F**K YEAH!!!
Posted on 12/03/2004 7:34:52 PM PST by RWR8189
A DEMOCRATIC SENATOR who attended a special screening of the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 was asked what he thought was the most revealing part about President Bush. The senator pondered a moment, then said it was the episode where Bush, in close-up, continues to talk to a grade-school class in Sarasota, Florida, for six or seven minutes after he's learned that planes had flown into the World Trade Center. What did it reveal? The senator couldn't say.
My impression, as Bush begins his second term in the White House, is that many in the political community, including the press, still haven't figured him out. One reason is the Bush presidency has emerged quite differently from what was expected. So here are five things about the president that help explain why he does what he does. They aren't the only five aspects of his presidency, but they're five important ones.
* ACTIVIST. The label is usually applied to liberal politicians, rarely conservatives. In Bush's case, it means he has a lengthy agenda and is impatient about enacting it. And it's an agenda--Social Security reform, altering the balance on the Supreme Court, tax reform, reversing cultural trends, a crusade for democracy around the globe--for change. Bush didn't get his activist streak from his father. George H.W. Bush was a caretaker president, dealing with items as they arrived in his in-basket. He lost his bid for reelection in 1992 partly because he didn't have much on his mind for a second term. Bush has a lot, and it's not trivial. One of his most stinging criticisms is to label a proposal "smallball"--in other words, not big or bold enough for serious presidential attention.
* OUTSIDER. Bush is an alien inside the Beltway. His election was the equivalent of getting a green card to work in Washington. He's not part of the social whirl. Nor has he made many close friends on Capitol Hill or around town. What separates him from the Washington crowd? More than anything else, it's religion. Bush is the first president who's a product of the modern evangelical movement, which means his Christian faith is personal, intense, and all-encompassing. It's not a part-time, Sunday-only thing. Leave Washington and you frequently encounter people who say of the president, "He's one of us." You don't hear that in Washington. A Texas friend recently sent the president a copy of Natan Sharansky's book, The Case for Democracy. Bush read most of it and asked Sharansky to meet with him at the White House. Bush praised Sharansky for his years as a dissident in the Soviet Union. To which Sharansky replied, "Now you are the chief dissident of the world."
* PRESS-BASHER. Bush has not made peace with the press, far from it. He views most reporters as political opponents eager to pepper him with gotcha questions. In Colombia last month, he appeared before reporters with President Alvaro Uribe. Bush didn't like the first question about a scuffle two days earlier involving the Secret Service. "This is a question?" he said, and gave a curt answer. Uribe said, "Do you want to get in one more [question]?" Bush said, "That's plenty. No. Thank you," ending the press conference prematurely.
Bush believes, correctly, that the Washington press corps favored John Kerry in the election. "Ninety percent for Kerry" is what White House aides say. Coverage of Bush reflected this. The Center for Media and Public Affairs found that coverage of Kerry was the most favorable for any presidential candidate since it began examining campaigns in 1988, while Bush's was mostly negative. Reporters complain they get little information from the White House. Chances are they'll get even less in the second term. Bush's calculation is that spending more time with the press would be time poorly spent.
* SURPRISER. Bush likes to defy the conventional wisdom. He often does it without even trying. I recently asked a leading supporter of Israel if he had known Bush would become the most pro-Israel president ever. He hadn't. Bush was expected to govern as a moderate conservative, but on most issues he's become hard core. He was expected to relax after November 2. Instead, he's plotting for next year. Presidents, indeed most politicians, are disinclined to give aides credit for their success. But Bush surprised Washington on the day after his reelection by calling Karl Rove "the architect" of his victory. The conventional wisdom is that Bush endorsed a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage to help win reelection but won't actually push it. The surprise of his second term may be that he pushes it aggressively.
* VISIONARY. Really. True, the word just doesn't seem to go with the Bush persona, or at least with the popular notion of Bush, the swaggering Texan. But in speech after speech, Bush has laid out a vision of democratizing the Middle East, then the world. In Halifax, Nova Scotia, last week, he pretended Canada shares his "great commitment . . . to enhance our own security by promoting freedom and hope and democracy in the broader Middle East." Most of Europe and Bush's own State Department disagree with this effort. But Bush is adamant. "It is cultural condescension to claim that some peoples or some cultures or some religions are destined to despotism and unsuited for self-government," he said in Halifax. With little fanfare, Bush also changed America's national security strategy from containment to preemption.
So where does all this leave us in understanding Bush? The first step is to abandon the original preconception of President Bush. He's different. The second step is to accept that he's attempting big things. And the third, as a result, is to get ready for a second presidential term like few we've seen.
Fred Barnes is executive editor of The Weekly Standard.
Me---This Texan, ascared, them's fightin' words in these parts!!!! HaHa--
Not scared so much as worried that the little weasel, Reid has been sitting and watching how the Reps have done things and has (unlike some dumb dems) figured out some things. He even invoked the name of Karl Rove when he said that he knew they needed changes to combat "the architect".
We just can't let our guards down, or let up pressure on the legislators to push for Bush's agenda. Since Bush is a lame duck, some of the Reps will be more worried about re-election than pushing for the reforms that Bush wants done.
yThe RATS will underestimate the publics want for for conservaive judges and lose even more seats in 2006.
Dubya... F**K YEAH!!!
Unless the Rangers EVER make it to the World Series. Sigh. Never mind. (I can always dream....)
I come from a "blue collar" working class family. Traditionally Democrat, or so they used to be. My parents would fall into the classification of "Reagan Democrats", though the days of voting for Democrats has ceased. As such, I used to favor the Democratic Party.
The exception was Clinton. My first year of eligibility to vote, I voted for Dole. Over 10 years later and the Party is only beginning to have the first stirrings of consciousness over how detrimental that man was to their majority rule. I have a soft spot for Zell. I understand the disappointment behind his fury over what has occured to the Party he belongs to. I still carry a sense of betrayal from when youthful ideal crashed with reality. I resent the current royaled Democrat echelon, and what they have made of the Party my grandparents believed in.
G.W. wasn't the first Republican Presidential candidate that received my vote as consequence of the Clinton years, he is the first Republican President I was of an age and mindset to take fully to heart. I consider him family. Which means sometimes he'll infuriate me, sometimes he'll fill my heart with pride. LOL I love the soul of this man and share in his vision.
Usually I cringe at change. It is unusual I would embrace it in the enthusiastic manner I have, but times are notably historic. I look upon my time in this period as a gift.
If one can take a moment of quiet to reflect, the signs of massive ideological, economical, geographical, political, and spiritual re-alignments are all around us. Really quite breathtaking. And our President has played, arguably, the greatest role in softening the climate so these movements can have room to spread.
Thank you. :-)
The Rangers will get there before the Nationals. Of that, you may be certain.
I am ready baby!
Fred Barnes is an Episcopalian.
I hope you mean an EX. like me!??!
bttt
I appreciate Fred Barnes. Must agree that he doesn't always speak as definitively as others, but he has a good mind and I believe his political heart is in the right place.
Krauthammer is fabulous. I will never forget the night he took johnnie edwards apart for saying people in wheelchairs would walk if skerry became president. Powerful stuff. I got chills when he explained that the implantation of embryonic stem cells can cause malignancy -- and that numerous doctors/scientists aren't interesting in using them for that reason. Monstrous dims and the MSM don't find it necessary to tell the truth about that. I'm glad he did.
It was riveting to hear him speak about how "cruel" it is that edwards (and others) are spreading "false hopes" that embryonic stem cell research is close to providing cures for paralysis. The passion and resentment in his voice were completely justified. Because as we all know, the man knows of what he speaks.
Thanks for the encouragement!
When W was on owner of the Rangers, he would sit in the stands just off homeplate. Not in a fancy suite. Not looking on from some lofty box. Between home and first where he could feel the game. That is the kind of man he is.
Have to beg to differ. Both great presidents, but Reagan was more conservative than W.
Some of us here believe that.You're in good company...welcome to FR! :-)
Very well said Soul Seeker.
Voted YES on criminal penalty for harming unborn fetus during other crime. (Mar 2004)
Voted YES on banning partial birth abortions except for maternal life. (Mar 2003)
Voted YES on maintaining ban on Military Base Abortions. (Jun 2000)
Voted YES on banning partial birth abortions. (Oct 1999)
Voted YES on disallowing overseas military abortions. (May 1999)
Opposed by NARAL, indicating a pro-life voting record. (Dec 2003)
Expand embryonic stem cell research. (Jun 2004)
I know more about Bush than Reagan. If as you say Reagan was better...I surly missed knowing a great man, didn't I?
I love it when I can show how much I admire Bush and not be called every cuss word in the book.
I've done a lot of praying for all the cuss words I used defending Bush and America against people who truly hate and despise both he and our country.
This country is filled with evil in the things they would say about him and poor Laura. She never did anything but that didn't stop them from calling her the crudest names.
President Bush may even more conservative now that he never has to face the voters again. And that would upset what passes for establishment Washington. To rephrase an old term about another scrappy President, "Give 'em hell, George!" seems appropriate here.
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