Look, I can see that the whole impetus for this is the MSM making the GOP look bad on defense to negate the GOP advantage on security. They'll bang this drum until it breaks.
But Bush sticking with this is going to make it worse. It will make it seem like he's all for foreign ownership of our ports. The average American knows this is a bad idea, no matter the free trade uber alles theory of the globalist GOP, no matter how much more efficient it is to have shipping specialists running the container ports.
The problem is that the GOP is winning because Americans believe this is a nation, not some subdivision of Earth, Inc., and as a nation, we need to defend ourselves. The biggest advantage America has had in the past in defending itself, outside of sheer geographic separation, has been its industry and largely because of its ability to trade freely to support that industry. Letting other countries get into a position to influence this and potentially clamp down on it, whether it's China in Panama running the canal, or the UAE in our ports, is a mistake.
Now that's the best point an opponent of this plan has made here all day. Very well done, you've got me thinking, and that's the whole point.
The municipalities own the ports. Foreign ownership is impossible.