I don’t know what it is, but it’s very, very strange.
It's all in the drink, easy to make, not always easy to shake!
Posted on 06/30/2007 2:24:57 PM PDT by hardback
The buzz around Washington today is that the proactive phase of the Bush presidency is over.
This analysis was prompted by the 46-to-53 Senate vote Thursday that ended the debate over immigration, most likely for the remainder of George W. Bush's term in office.
"You could make the case that the Bush presidency ended this week," a former White House adviser to Ronald Reagan told U.S. News. He points out that not only did Bush lose his main domestic priority for his second term, but he also faces a revolt within his party over his Iraq policy.
That was driven home when Sens. Richard Lugar of Indiana and George Voinovich of Ohio broke with the administration and said it's time for the United States to start disengaging from Iraq.
Bush aides are trying to persuade the GOP dissidents not to stray too far and to give the president's Iraq policy longer to work. But it's unclear whether those arguments will work.
On immigration, Bush argued Thursday that the American people realize that the status quo is "unacceptable," and he expressed disappointment that his compromise measure failed.
But its loss was caused at least as much by opposition from conservatives as from liberals, and it caused a rift between Bush and his base that may be irreparable. White House officials are trying to shift blame to the Democratic majority in Congress.
Bush advisers say Democratic leaders will now be unable to show any progress on immigration, raising questions about whether they can govern effectively.
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...
There, that's better.
I don’t know what it is, but it’s very, very strange.
It's all in the drink, easy to make, not always easy to shake!
Basically correct. At this point, not doing anything stupid is all the President is politically capable of.
No reality is we are not at war, we have merely placed our young men and women in a battlefield to be shot at, while letting the enemies take refuge all over the world. Turn loose the powers we have on the enemies and we will then be in a war, of short duration.
Remember Korea
Remember Vietnam...
Compare the outcome at Dresden to Faluja then come back on this thread and talk about war.
An outstanding feature of the immigration bill being shot down is that it now has the chance to be THE issue of the 2008 election with ALL eligible voters making the final decision.
Nice sentiment, but leaving the borders so unprotected kinda gets in the way of that "protecting from domestic enemies" stuff, don't you think?
“So the ONLY thing you losers managed to do is make sure the VERY crises you are so upset about remains completely unchanged for another 2 years or more.”
This will be THE campaign issue of 2008. The first conservative Presidential candidate to declare they’ll send the National Guard to the border immediately upon inauguration and have a wall built by the end of their first term will be the winner, IMO.
First off, the policies they support or don't...most certainly can (and do) have an impact on the economy. Secondly, regardless of what credit or lack thereof how the economy performs under their watch most certainly does effect how they are judged by history (especially if the economy is robust or ill).
Bush's spending and expansion of government, especially the prescription program, may be one of the big steps on the way to bankrupting this country.
Much like R. Reagan's far worse expansion of burdening yet an entire other generation to the biggest wealth stealing scheme there is...Social Security (RR raised FICA taxes to boot). But of course, we'll give him a pass, he couldn't help it (he only held the Senate by larger numbers then GWB for most of his 8 years. That was until he lost it big time in 87....but that wasn't because of his policies or his fault...like we know 06 was GWB's. I got it).
We have not ineffectually fought the war in Iraq / WOT. On the whole what has been accomplished to date (with limited loss of life) is historically amazing. The progress I've witnessed in both Iraq and Stan is tremendous....but from thousands of miles away, listening to the MSM play out this war...many are ill-informed (obviously you fall into this category). So be it.
History will prove your thoughts on the matter wrong. Of this I am confident.
Thankfully, we were able to reverse his Harriet Miers appointment and stop his amnesty bill that would have destroyed this country as we know it.
To bad we were able to accomplish neither during the great conservative R. Reagan's presidency, hey? He gave us the terrible PC choice of SDO to the SCOUTS (didn't listen to our base at all, shoved that women down our throats simply for the reason that she was a women)....and then gave us blanket amnesty for all illegals (sans those from 83-84)...this while holding a MAJORITY REPUB in the US Senate no less. Shameful.
Buy we'll give him a pass there to, won't we. Why not.
So the ONLY thing you losers managed to do is make sure the VERY crises you are so upset about remains completely unchanged for another 2 years or more.
You're not defining it correctly. It's the "status quo" of lack of enforcement of the current laws that people want changed, not the laws themselves. There's no reason why those laws cannot be enforced anytime over the next two years, so your claim is completely opposite to the actual point.
Unless, of course, you're implying that the government should not enforce current laws. Does that just hold true for immigration laws, or have you made a mental list of other laws you think should not be enforced?
"Know-nothings," eh? We know enough to see through a crap argument. Step up your game, if you have one.
Foolishness. Two complete different eras (in more ways then I have time to list) and two complete different wars.
The WOT/Iraq is a completely different enemy. Furthermore we lost well over 200,000 men in WWII (for example). We have loss less then 4000 to actual combat in all of the WOT and as a nation we can hardly take those casualties figures.
The notion that we are allowing refuge all over the world isn't exactly accurate either. We have guys risking all, taking the fight to our enemies throughout the ME, Asia and the Horn of Africa.
I will say I can understand your sentiment to a point...but on the whole this is simply a different era, different war. Best regards.
Bingo!
And might I add - before he got booted out of here, bayourod did this shtick WAY better. He may have been tedious, obscurantist and condescending, but at least he was fairly creative about it. And boy, was he hilarious! Even those who hated him at the time must look back and get a chuckle out of it. Amazing what a little panache can do.
Come back, bayourod, all is forgiven!
For Bush the elder it was the success of Operation Desert Storm and of course the infamous broken "READ MY LIPS, NO NEW TAXES" pledge that successfully ended his bid for another term.
For Clinton, it's the conquest of Monica Lewinsky "I DID NOT HAVE SEX WITH THAT WOMAN" singlehandedly redefining the sexual mores of oral sex as not really sex.
And now we have Dubya who's defining issue will of course be 9-11 and his response to it. The WOT is now the most important issue of our time, it's all about our survival as a nation and anything related to it can mean success or failure to Bush's legacy, luckily this Amnesty Bill did not pass so there's still hope that Bush can leave office on a good note rather than a disastrous one.
WTH are you talking about, it's all Michael Savage's fault that the Amnesty Bill was defeated because he's been consistently griping about our unsecured borders all these years on his radio show?
So no other talk show host gets any credit in your book for this Bill's defeat? Don't think too many Freepers will agree with you there. So I guess you were/are a pro-Amnesty knucklehead?
Nope. There are plenty of things President Bush can stil screw up. Isn’t he going to see Putin soon?
This should go in the plus column. It gave domestic producers a breather and a window of opportunity to get their acts more competitive for when the tariffs ended a year or two later. It worked. This last week for example, a freighter load of steel made in Cleveland set sail for Belgium, the first American steel shipped to Europe in like thirteen years. They have another shipment to Europe scheduled for August.
Three vetoes in six years? I think Bush is the one who forgot about the magic word.
"Doin' a heckuva job there Mikey."
Good list. Bush gets a D- on domestic policy. Two SC heads and some tax cuts ain;t cutting it. The rest is lefty pablum. My new tone with Bush: STFU and win the war.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.