Posted on 10/27/2006 3:25:56 AM PDT by Aussie Dasher
Somewhere it is written in the Book of Politics that when the race gets tight, the leaders call in the Scribes. It is for this reason that I found myself at LaGuardia Airport Wednesday en route to an afternoon meeting in the Oval Office with President Bush. That would be followed by lunch the next day with the vice president. The airport deserves mention because the very small group of writers who sat with the president was in fact exponentially larger than the number of travelers there who stopped to watch his 10:30 a.m. news conference on the TV monitors.
Two weeks from an election, perhaps their minds are made up. The president's certainly is. "This war is different than the other wars we've been in," Mr. Bush said a few hours after his news conference while sitting beneath a portrait of George Washington. "If we leave, they will follow us here."
Meetings with the president at election time are overtly political, but the remarkable irony here was how little election politics came up in our discussion. Mr. Bush talked expansively about Iraq, the Maliki government, Iran, Syria, North Korea and the broader war on terror. When his own party's infatuation with immigration was raised, Mr. Bush briefly ticked off his own thoughts on immigration policy and swung back to this:
"I'm campaigning like mad, and I'm looking at people in the eye and saying, you better have a government that does everything in its power to protect you from attack. You're right here in the office where I get briefed every morning and I'm telling you it's on my mind, and I can't keep it off my mind. I was affected deeply by the attacks of September the 11th.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
VOTE!!!!!
It is astonishing how many people seem to have forgotten the Sept 11 attacks. Given the possibility of a nuclear attack in an American city, it is simply amazing that this isn't an issue to people.
Then again, I'm just caving in to Republican 'fear mongering'.
Great find -- thanks for posting.
Wake up America! And vote Republican!
A great posting. Thanks.
Go to the column and about 1/3 of the way through is a link to the mpg recording. You have to choose high or low bandwidth, so I am providing the link to the column instead of directly to the recording. Please take the time to listen. You won't regret it.
They haven't forgotten...they just blame the people who died.
GO GEORGE GO!!!!!!
Yeah, we're all so easily swayed and manipulated. The next thing you know, they'll tell us something really ridiculous like, "The terrorists are planning to hijack airliners and fly them into buildings."
Thank you.
Don't forget to VOTE!!!!!
Don't you know if algore were POTUS 9/11 would never have happened?
If I had had an ounce of brain in my head and not have voted for Gore twice for senator, he might not have happened period.!!!!
For all the animosity directed at this president, he remains focused on one thing---the one thing that matters---our safety.
I can't explain the things that have disappointed me: the hapless cease fire in Lebanon, the failure to take on the U.N. and the IAEA, the convoluted immigration stance, etc.
But I know this. President Bush is our ONLY hope against the gathering attack. He's the only one who has shown political backbone in spite of hateful, relentless criticism and ever-shrinking support from dreamy Americans who've tired of war. I'm amazed to watch him carry on despite the awful things the media says about him and their stubborn refusal to print good news.
God Bless him...no one else will.
Gret article. Thanks.
You know something, I agree with President Bush that we are indeed at war. Where I part ways with President Bush and most Republicans is in defining the enemy. While he is insistent the enemies are extremist Muslims, I believe all of Islam is at war with us. And I'm EXTREMELY uncomfortable the way he cozies up to Muslims.
Now, I'm not registered with any political party, so I've no political agenda anyone has to swallow. That said, if I'm uncomfortable with President Bush acknowledging only radical Muslims, can anyone even begin to understand how uncomfortable I'm going to feel if Democrats, with a peace at any cost mentality, gain too much power during this war?
If Democrats gain control of Congress, I've little doubt they will move to end this war. If that comes to pass, I hope they likewise end the war on drugs. I may be needing the drugs.
There is a dearth of statesmen, not only in the US, but around the world.
We are all the worse off for it, too.
That said,
VOTE REPUBLICAN!
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