To: Joe Boucher
"Why does he think making nice with the dems will get them to make nice?"
In all fairness, all wartime presidents including FDR had to compromise and horse-trade to get what they needed to prosecute their war. Bush entered office in 2001 with no mandate and only half of Congress in his party's control thanks to Jumpin' Jim Jeffords. So he compromised and horse-traded and kissed Teddy Kennedy's ample arse. Understandable, if distasteful. He wasn't a Reagan because he hadn't Reagan's commanding mandate.
The real disappointment came in 2005, when he did have a mandate, and both houses of Congress. He did a whole lot of nothing with the political capital he'd been handed. Same goes for the rest of the GOP.
The fundamental problem isn't Bush, though, except as a symptom: the GOP never grasped how to be a majority party, and its Reagan/Goldwaterite limited-government philosophies and traditions were discarded like yesterday's unstylish frock. That has got to change or 2008 will make 2006 look like a warm-up.
To: RightOnTheLeftCoast
60 posted on
01/14/2007 11:35:34 AM PST by
Joe Boucher
(an enemy of islam)
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