Goldberg: Give Bush a break

Lord knows I have my problems with President Bush. He taps the federal coffers like a monkey smacking the bar for another cocaine pellet in an addiction study. Some of his sentences give me the same sensation as falling backward in one of those "trust" exercises, in which you just have to hope things work out. Yes, the Iraq invasion has gone badly, and to deny this is to suggest that Bush meant for things to turn out this way, which is even crueler than saying he failed to get it right.

Of course, I will get hippo-choking amounts of e-mail from Bush-haters telling me that all I ever do is cut Bush slack. But these folks grade on the curve. By their standards, anything short of demanding that a half-starved badger be sewn into his belly flunks.

Besides, the Bush-bashers have lost credibility. The most delicious example came this week when it was finally revealed that Colin Powell's oak-necked majordomo Richard Armitage - and not some star-chamber neocon - "outed" Valerie Plame, the spousal prop of Washington's biggest ham, Joe Wilson. Now it turns out that instead of "Bush blows CIA agent's cover to silence a brave dissenter" - as Wilson practices saying into the mirror every morning - the story is, "One Bush enemy inadvertently taken out by another's friendly fire."

And then there's Hurricane Katrina. Yes, the federal government could have responded better. And of course there were real tragedies involved in that disaster. But you know what? Bad stuff happens during disasters, which is why we don't call them tickle-parties.

The anti-Bush chorus, including enormous segments of the mainstream media, sees Katrina as nothing more than a good stick for beating on Piñata Bush's "competence." The hypocrisy is astounding because the media did such an abysmal job covering the reality of New Orleans (contrary to reports, there were no bands of rapists, no disproportionate deaths of poor blacks, nothing close to 10,000 dead, etc.). It seems indisputable that Katrina highlighted the tragedy of New Orleans rather than create it. Long before Katrina, New Orleans was a dysfunctional city in a state with famously corrupt and incompetent leadership, many of whose residents think that it is the job of the federal government to make everyone whole.

The Mississippi coast was hit harder by Katrina than New Orleans was. And although New Orleans' levee failure was a unique problem - one the local leadership ignored for decades - the devastation in Mississippi was in many respects more severe. And you know what? Mississippi has the same federal government as Louisiana, and reconstruction there is going gangbusters while, after more than $120 billion in federal spending, New Orleans remains a basket case. Here's a wacky idea: Maybe it's not all Bush's fault.

Then, of course, there's the war on terror. Democrats love to note that Bush hasn't caught Osama bin Laden yet, as if this is the most vital metric for success. Yes, it'd be nice to catch bin Laden - no doubt Ramsey Clark, the top legal gun for both LBJ and Saddam Hussein, will be looking for a new client soon. But even nicer than catching bin Laden is not having thousands of dead Americans in New York, Washington and L.A. Contrary to all expert predictions, there hasn't been a successful attack on the homeland since 9/11. Indeed, the current issue of the Atlantic Monthly contains a long, exhaustively reported cover story by James Fallows about how the U.S. is, in fact, winning the war on terror, thanks largely to Bush's policies (though Fallows works hard not to credit Bush).

Political dissatisfaction with the president rests entirely on Iraq and overall Bush fatigue. The rest amounts to little more than Iraq-motivated brickbats gussied up to look like freestanding complaints. That's how hate works: It looks for more excuses to hate in the same way that fire looks for more stuff to burn.

That's why Bush's Democratic critics flit about like bilious butterflies, exploiting each superficial or transient problem just long enough to score some points in the polls, then moving on. Bush's Medicare plan was an egregious corporate giveaway, they cried, until seniors overwhelmingly reported that they like it. And the Patriot Act? Can anyone even remember what the Democrats were whining about? I think it had something to do with libraries that were never searched.

Look, things could obviously be a lot better. But they could be a lot worse too. John Kerry could be president.

Seen from france BUSH is great!

It's sure good to hear this from a French person -- but there are still very few like you, aren't there? Or has it begun to dawn on France that Bush's war on terror isn't just unfounded warmongering? Maybe Europe is beginning to see how prescient Bush was back in 2001/2002 when he decided to ramp up the effort against Islamic terror. Has opinion of Bush improved any over the past few years? France and America have a common enemy again, which I would expect to have a smoothing effect on our relationship.

"..rporing from Biloxi, Mississippi and one of them was telling about the hospital that had been destroyed by Katrina. Instead of waiting for the government to come in and rebuilt it. The doctors did it themselves."

The people of Mississippi really are something. They act and think in completely different ways than their neighbors in New Orleans. They've also had the good sense to put strong Republican leaders in office. Leaders who have outshone the dims in LA in every conceivable way.

The real story of Katrina lies right in the middle of those differences. Or possibly right in front of it.

Hello,
france is hitting rock bottom and political and ideological atmosphere is more and more nasty.
Politicians are fighting each other with poor arguments as presidential elections are coming in 2007.
The only consensual point from the far right to the far left is the simplist and dishonest critic of USA and ISRAEL and in the background the multicultural chorus and muslim world appeasement.
The few french conservatives and free thinking intellectuals see USA with GWBUSH as the actual main leader of the free and civilized world.
Thank you

Political dissatisfaction with the president rests entirely on Iraq and overall Bush fatigue..

Perhaps so, but for many of us, his policy on the BORDER/AMNESTY for illegals does not sit well at all.

I will go as far as saying that he has handled this issued POORLY at best. He could have had his amnesty had he been smart enough to see the need for consistency and had secured the border FIRST... then... He could have dealt with the illegas here. Leaving the border wide open - unprotected - is something that many of us won't ACCEPT. Least of all from a Republican president. Now the congress is coming back we better get ready to keep fighting for this one.

Oh, do you want me to be constructive? ok. The presiden should show LEADERSHIP in securing the border FIRST, FIRST, FIRST...the rest later.

2- Fight like hell for the war in Iraq (he is doing it, Rumsfeld and Cheney are doinng it too...in great fashion. my advice CONTINUE DOING THIS. Continue talking about the fact that we have not had any attacks since 9/11. Continue defending the Patriot Act. I mean if we can not take credit for something positive like this... we are in trouble.

Fight like hell and do not flinch... or show weackness or lack of resolved or the MSM will eat him alive.

ok now. you caN flame all you want.. I can handle it. :) - FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT

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