Posted on 05/05/2005 9:30:25 PM PDT by SmithL
WASHINGTON, (AP) --
The White House reacted cautiously on Thursday to the narrow third-term victory of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Bush's staunchest Iraq war ally.
Blair's Labour Party won in Britain's national elections, but exit poll projections indicated his party suffered a sharply reduced parliamentary majority, an apparent rebuke for going to war in Iraq.
Bush, who was leaving Friday for a four-country, five-day tour of eastern and central Europe, was expected call to Blair to congratulate him on the narrow victory, White House aides said.
Commenting on the lackluster returns, a chastened Blair said, "We will have to respond to that sensibly and wisely."
White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said she had nothing to add to earlier White House wait-and-see reactions to the election outcome.
Widespread anger over Blair's role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and outspoken support for Bush appeared to have taken a toll, although an improving economy over Blair's eight years was said to have helped his party win an unprecedented third term.
Before the actual vote count, presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said he did not want to speculate on what the ramifications of a narrow victory for Blair's party might be.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I'll be the first (on this thread) to suggest that the White House should be pleased overall. The most liberal wags over there have been put on notice, the conservatives gained power.. Win-win. And the media is in a race to see who can declare it the most complete disaster for Bush.
That to me seems like a complete victory.
Since most of the lost seats were picked up by the Tories, how can the vote be considered "anti war?"
I agree with you completely, We kept a loyal friend in Tony Blair as the Prime Minister and the Conservatives gained at least 25 seats. Great day for all :-)
In Britain, the Tories are almost as anti-war and anti-Bush as the Laborites.
Since most of the lost seats were picked up by the Tories, how can the vote be considered "anti war?"
Because the turnout was quite low. Conservative voters tend to be older and tend not to sit out elections whilst Labor voters this time are throwing a major tantrum by simply not voting.
In Britain, the Tories are almost as anti-war and anti-Bush as the Laborites.
TOTAL GARBAGE.
It would appear that you're wrong about that.
read the link that I posted and then get back to me.
In general, the Tory party's position on the Iraq war is almost identical to John Kerry's. It voted for the war after much grumbling about "crusades" and meddling in other people's affairs. And now the party is keen to exploit Tony Blair's embarrassments about everything from weapons of mass destruction to the abuse of prisoners in Abu Ghraib.
Unconvinced? Try Sir Max Hastings, a former editor of the Daily Telegraph and, for a time, one of Mrs. Thatcher's favorite journalists. In a recent column entitled "I hate George Bush" (at least you can't accuse him of burying the lead), Sir Max denounced American conservatives as "lunatics" and proclaimed that "every single bleak forecast about their follies has been fulfilled." To back up these arguments, Sir Max employed the full gamut of Moorist tropes--America is a land of gun-toting religious zealots; the Bush administration thinks that democracy can be marketed in the same way as Enron shares, etc.--before urging his readers to pray for John Kerry's victory in November.
Except that it runs in the face of everything I have heard from the Brits that I know. Perhaps the liberal British press isn't the place to go wondering about the Tory platform?
Maybe so.
Adrian Wooldridge is actually somewhat of an admirer of American conservatism. He and his writing partner wrote a favorably reviewed book that you may have heard of called "The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America." Nevertheless, if you want to ignore the evidence that Mr. Wooldridge has provided in his piece regarding the anti-Americanism that currently infests the Tory Party that is your pleasure.
And by the way, that article I posted is from The Weekly Standard which does not normally feature scribblings from liberal journalists.
And here is an excerpt from the piece which belies your contention that Wooldridge is some sort of liberal British hack
The fundamental fact about American conservatism is not just that it is conservatism but that it is "American." Reaganism has survived in so much better shape than Thatcherism because it went with the grain of American culture, tapping into many of the deepest sentiments in American life: religiosity, capitalism, patriotism, individualism, optimism. Look at any comparative poll overseas of national attitudes, and these are the areas where the U.S. sticks out a mile. Which perhaps also helps to explain why no other country has a similar force. Reaganism may have had its contradictions; but, from a global point of view, it still looks like America--only more so.
Apparently British muslims abandoned Tony Blair massively all over Britain. There was even a semi organised campaign in Blackburn to unseat Jack Straw.
I guess in some districts, when Labour lost the muslim vote to the Lib dems, the Tories slipped though the middle. Just a guess though.
Or perhaps you could listen to Douglas Hurd as he last night was lamenting that the Tory leaderhip of Duncan Smith had taken a pro-war stance, and dreamt of how well the Tories could have done if they had joined Galloway and the lib dems and stopping Blair in the parliament before the war.
Not true.
Interesting, but on C-Span they had a Conservative leader who said the issues that made the swing were mostly economic. The war was a lesser issue. He sounded like a Dem when he said that if only the downturn had happened sooner they could have won.
It is a concerning situation for Bush. The Tory party 2.0 Labor lite version did better than expected, but still lost meaning that Labor, but likely not Blair, will form the next government. Also, even if the Tories had won, Bush would have been unhappy; he likes allies that stand up for their convictions, not fair weather friends who are going to sell him out at the first sign of danger.
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