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Right or Wrong, Bush is a True Big-Picture Guy
Op/Ed My Yahoo ^ | 1/11/03 | Richard Reeves

Posted on 01/11/2003 5:35:42 PM PST by ohioWfan

By Richard Reeves

WASHINGTON -- When he was still a governor in 1999, George W. Bush came to Los Angeles to speak to a polite but skeptical crowd of movie executives. Suspicions that the man from Texas was dim and uncertain seemed confirmed when he could not remember the name of a Californian he said he had worked with closely.

Bush snapped the tension with a crack: "Hey, I'm a big-picture guy."

Who knew he wasn't kidding? I have told that story before, but it seems appropriate right now. This president has knocked the wind out of Washington with his ambitions to change the rules of the world and the tax code of the United States. "Big" and "bold" are the words of the day, as in this headline over a Washington Post analysis: "Bush Goes With the Bold Stroke."

"Call it boldness, audacity or even chutzpah ..." begins the piece by Dana Milbank, which continues, "President Bush twice stunned the capital with proposals far beyond what was considered workable."

The heavy breathing began last Tuesday, when the president called for tax cuts that doubled even what many of the most anti-government Republicans expected -- and they were cuts that proudly favored the so-called "investing class." Rich people, families with incomes above $375,000 a year, the top 1 percent of earners, would get more than 30 percent of the new tax breaks.

Then a few hours later, the president followed with another right cross to the town's solar plexus. The conventional wisdom was that after the racial flap over Sen. Trent Lott's praise of segregationists past, Bush would look for more moderate conservatives to nominate for federal judgeships in the South. Wrong again! Bush once again nominated federal District Court Judge Charles Pickering to fill an appeals court vacancy. Pickering, a Lott protege from Mississippi, was rejected last year by the Senate Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) because of his record on racial matters. That was when Democrats controlled the Senate. Now Republicans are in control, so Bush stuck it to the new minority.

In case the Democrats did not get the message, he also renominated Texas Supreme Court Justice Patricia Owens for the same appeals court. She had been rejected in committee because Democrats believed she was determined to push a personal anti-abortion agenda on the bench.

Our president is a very tough guy, an in-your-face politician far tougher than people on both sides thought. "In for a penny, in for a pound," was the comment by one Republican in Congress. The idea, which surprised most people around here, was that if Bush is going to lose on some of his programs, particularly tax cuts, why not lose big?

Many in his own party, some of them uncomfortable with this boldness -- thinking it irresponsible -- believe that the president is haunted by his father's easygoing reputation. The conventional wisdom is that George H.W. Bush lost re-election in 1992 because he did not cash in the political capital (his own high standing in polls) after the first Gulf War (news - web sites) against Iraq. The political cliche on that one is, "Not like father, like son."

All of this happened, of course, while the president was threatening war in a couple of venues, old and new, and as the federal budget (and the budgets of state and local governments) were plunging once more into deficit because of relatively lower tax revenues. We've been there, done that, haven't we? The fact is that younger Bush is not like his father. He is like his father's old boss, Ronald Reagan (news - web sites). Borrow and borrow, spend and spend -- and ignore criticism.

He is, right or wrong -- and he certainly is convinced he's right -- a true big-picture guy. He may be riding for a fall, but he is trying to change the world and the country. Bush, right now, is moving to remake the world in an American image -- institutionalizing an American empire -- and remake the country in a conservative image with government power reduced by cutting its funding. And if people don't like it, they can go to court and appeal to the judges he picked.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bold; bush; toughguy; truevisionary
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Good article!
1 posted on 01/11/2003 5:35:42 PM PST by ohioWfan
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To: mombonn; ejo; Fiddlstix; lawgirl; Teacup; Miss Marple; Wait4Truth; TruthNtegrity; TXBubba; ...
Tough guy Presidential PING!
2 posted on 01/11/2003 5:36:41 PM PST by ohioWfan (BUSH - Leadership, Morality, Integrity)
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To: ohioWfan
Corrected Title: GEORGE W. BUSH IS A TRUE VISIONARY
3 posted on 01/11/2003 5:37:31 PM PST by friendly
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To: ohioWfan
Here I am Ohio
4 posted on 01/11/2003 5:38:11 PM PST by Soaring Feather (Dubya)
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To: friendly
Indeed he is. And his vision will make America a better place.
5 posted on 01/11/2003 5:39:54 PM PST by ohioWfan (BUSH - Leadership, Morality, Integrity)
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To: bentfeather
Hey there bentfeather! Good to see you!
6 posted on 01/11/2003 5:41:58 PM PST by ohioWfan (BUSH - Visionary)
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To: ohioWfan
Good article!

NO!

GREAT ARTICLE!
7 posted on 01/11/2003 5:42:53 PM PST by cmsgop ( Don't Drink and FReep !!!!)
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To: cmsgop
I stand corrected!
8 posted on 01/11/2003 5:44:42 PM PST by ohioWfan (BUSH - TRUE Visionary)
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To: ohioWfan
And if people don't like it, they can go to court and appeal to the judges he picked.

Amen. You go W!!

9 posted on 01/11/2003 5:45:50 PM PST by Wphile (Back it in Phil!)
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To: ohioWfan
SMART GUYS always are tough and big picture types.....it's those pesky micro managers that gets everyone (themselves, their companies, their part) in trouble! (TAKE THAT x42!)Thanks for the PING, ohio.
10 posted on 01/11/2003 5:54:34 PM PST by goodnesswins (Life IS Grand.)
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To: ohioWfan
Thanks for the ping ohioWfan (-:
11 posted on 01/11/2003 5:55:58 PM PST by firewalk
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To: ohioWfan
Our President is BRILLIANT.

What made this country the greatest in the world? FREEDOM!

The more freedom we have the more greatness we will have.
12 posted on 01/11/2003 5:57:10 PM PST by killermosquito
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To: MeeknMing; Luis Gonzalez; JohnHuang2; Molly Pitcher; Guenevere; tillacum; JRandomFreeper; ...
Ping!
13 posted on 01/11/2003 5:57:30 PM PST by ohioWfan (BUSH - TRUE Visionary)
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To: ohioWfan
I am so grateful that we have this guy in the White House. I hope he continues to rip that sleaze town apart with his vision. And he must have vision, because just when the oppostion thinks they have him pegged, he yanks the rug out from under them....again.
14 posted on 01/11/2003 5:58:10 PM PST by softengine
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To: ohioWfan
Bush has aptly demonstrated that he has the one thing the liberals said (ad nauseum) he lacked during 2000...GRAVITAS!

Go Bush!
15 posted on 01/11/2003 5:58:29 PM PST by HanneyBean (B-U-S-H: Bold-Unifier-Smart-Honorable)
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To: killermosquito
"Bush, right now, is moving to remake the world in an American image -- institutionalizing an American empire -- and remake the country in a conservative image with government power reduced by cutting its funding. And if people don't like it, they can go to court and appeal to the judges he picked."


LOLOLOL!!!!! Oh my, I think I have died and gone to heaven!!!!

16 posted on 01/11/2003 5:58:31 PM PST by AlwaysLurking
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To: ohioWfan
"Hey, I'm a big-picture guy."

He's a patriot with integrity and great interpersonal skills.
Does that make him a "big-picture" guy?
I dunno...but I like 'em and to the degree that a politician can be trusted, I trust 'em..

17 posted on 01/11/2003 5:58:38 PM PST by evad
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To: goodnesswins
Gets tiring hearing that the President's not an intellect, BUT.........

He has the right kind of intelligence, and more importantly he possesses the wisdom to know how to use it.

18 posted on 01/11/2003 5:59:50 PM PST by ohioWfan (BUSH - TRUE Visionary)
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To: ohioWfan
Of course he is.It's why he is always getting second guessed and outsmarting his opponents :-)
19 posted on 01/11/2003 6:00:07 PM PST by habs4ever (...just like Reagan did, too...)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
bump
20 posted on 01/11/2003 6:01:09 PM PST by Libertarianize the GOP
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