I Was Wrong About Bush

OpinionJournal.com ^ | 09/25/2001 | Gerald Posner

[Fury]

What a difference 10 months make. Last November I broke the unwritten rule that requires journalists to be neutral political observers when I got embroiled in the controversy over the presidential election and publicly supported Al Gore.

It was not just with friends that I passionately argued the election had been stolen and that Mr. Gore would be the better president. I was one of the signatories to the pompously titled "Emergency Committee of Concerned Citizens 2000," which took full-page ads in the New York Times demanding a revote in Palm Beach County, Fla. I wrote op-eds for Salon.com and the New York Daily News. On television talk shows from MSNBC to Fox News's popular "The O'Reilly Factor," I made the case for Mr. Gore. In thousands of e-mails, I urged voters to deluge Clay Roberts, director of Florida's Division of Elections, with appeals for a recount.

[Sloth]

And I bet Katherine Harris is feeling pretty good about a shot at being elected to the public service institution of her choice.

I keep thinking about how she was influenced by the biblical story of Esther, and wondered if perhaps she was in that position, taking all that persecution (pressecution), for a reason. I bet now she's pretty confident what that reason was.

[techcor]

Gee, your first day and this is what you post. Why don't you go back to DU and stew with your friends about President Bush's 90% approval. Snore.

The liberal millionaire problem is worse than the oil millionaire problem.

[Protagoras]

Someone should ping this to every patsie and libertarian.

Tell us why. Also explain why you use the word patsie (patsy?) and libertarian in the same sentence. Also explain why you are too cowardly to ping them yourself.

[Hugh Akston]

So you can find in his speeches where Bush has advocated internment camps, a national ID card, face recognition software, and enhancing Carnivore?

[Hugh Akston]

The oil millionaire problem, as in Al Gore and Occidental?

[Neets]

TO BOLDLY GO, and turn off the Italics.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[Neets]

CTAOF = Closed Tags Are Our Friends

[Cultural Jihad]

And then living up to his name, malador said:
You prove it with practically every post with your vitriol and hatred for folks who want nothing more than to be left alone.

People who want to be left alone to destroy themselves hate themselves much more than the imagined hatred of those who value their lives more than they themselves do.

[Hugh Akston]

You need to close every font tag; you just can't supercede a font color with another font color.

[mumbo]

I land with both of my size 14's in YOUR corner, Mr. Fufkin! Thanks you for saying it so well.

[DallasDeb]

Hey, Hidy, where have you been Hiding lately?

[DallasDeb]

Any way we can link this thread to DU?

[x]

KC, the United States has been unusually blessed (excepting Wilson and LBJ) to somehow place the right individual in the Oval Office at crucial times in our history. Washington, Jefferson, Monroe, Jackson, Lincoln, the Roosevelts, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Reagan and now W. In times of peace and prosperity, we can afford jackasses and lesser lights like John Quincy Adams, Van Buren, Pierce, Grant, Cleveland, Taft, Harding, Ford, Carter, Clinton and the rest.

I'd have made the same two exceptions -- Wilson and LBJ were pretty glaring failures and did not successfully meet the demands of leading a country into and out of war. Kennedy and Nixon seem to me to fit in more among the "jackasses and lesser lights," but I suppose one could make a case that they fit into the first group. Madison, though, doesn't seem to have risen to meet the great crisis of his Presidency. On the whole, though, even when we might disagree with their policies or have underestimated them beforehand, we have been fortunate in our Presidents during time of crisis.

[Teacup]

had always found Mr. Bush stiff in his scripted speeches.

Boy! This guy was really confused! Bush stiff? I think he was thinking about Gore. Either way, welcome aboard. God is great, and he answers prayers. Keep praying for Bush and God Bless America!

[sargon]

This must be driving the folks at DU nuts..

It is. They are all goosestepping over there with the reactionary anti-Bush hysteria. I was so inspired that I went ahead and registered there so I could make the only positive comment on Posner's piece.

There is so much more healthy dissent on this forum than at DU...

[Xenalyte]

They are indeed flippin' out. Check out some of these (unedited, of course, for our reading pleasure):

"Comparing the coup leader to Churchill and FDR is beyond offensive, to put it as mildly as possible."

"It was so bad I got paranoid and starting concocting conspiracy theories. It all just seemed far too convenient for Bush."

"If the guy was a dolt on Sept. 10, he's still a dolt on Sept. 11."

"The guy is handed and well written speech by his handlers, he reads it thanks to Condi Rice helping him with the "hard" words and now he is a GREAT president?"

I love the smell of panic in the morning!

[Donna Lee Nardo]

We'll take as many converts as we can!

[borg]

Humongous BUMP