Posted on 05/07/2002 9:01:55 PM PDT by Archfiend
I don't think I ever had any big hopes for Bush II, so I can't really be disappointed, either. But for somebody to rush to the defense of Bush, Jr., with a "well, at least he's better than the prior officeholder", that's what I would call damning with faint praise.
Clinton turned the country left in small steps over several years. He did some things that the left totally dispised but they went along for the cause because they knew the overall plan would work - and it did!
Bush is doing just the opposite !
This is all rather amazing to me. Apparently, our Presidents these days are all either plaster saints or cartoon devils, with no room for anything in between.
"Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien" - the perfect is the enemy of the good. Voltaire had it pegged three hundred years ago. We have a cast of characters who get nothing because they consistently pass up the good solutions in favor of some quixotic quest for the "perfect" solution. Well, just excuse the sh*t out of me for thinking that half-a-loaf is better than starving to death.
Ronald Reagan, from his autobiography, An American Life
"When I began entering into the give and take of legislative bargaining in Sacramento, a lot of the most radical conservatives who had supported me during the election didn't like it. "Compromise" was a dirty word to them and they wouldn't face the fact that we couldn't get all of what we wanted today. They wanted all or nothing and they wanted it all at once. If you don't get it all, some said, don't take anything.
"I'd learned while negotiating union contracts that you seldom got everything you asked for. And I agreed with FDR, who said in 1933: 'I have no expectations of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average.'
"If you got seventy-five or eighty percent of what you were asking for, I say, you take it and fight for the rest later, and that's what I told these radical conservatives who never got used to it."
Ronald Reagan, from his autobiography, An American Life
Which is absolutely, positively the correct way to 'look at the political process.'
The alternative would be what? To fail to win, in order to make some philosophical point? I think not, for your philosophical point will be forgotten, even ignored, while the victor exercizes the power.
Unfortunately, a shallow, simple analysis of the Bush Administrations' actions of late, leads to the undeniable truth that his ship is missing a rudder.
You may think it Bush "bashing," but the observant ones in this crowd will recognize it for the truth... Nice try...
Is the government bigger or smaller since Bush took office?
Do you think that the government, by January of 2005, is going to be bigger or smaller than it is now?
Dumbass.
That's only one measure - I'm not a single-issue kind of guy. ;)
It was much bigger under Reagan after 8 years so does this mean he was a failure?
It has also gotten bigger under all 43 Presidents so who's gonna be your White Knight ?
You really think that federalized luggage screeners are going to do any better a job than if these same people had simply remained on the payrolls of the airlines doing the same exact thing? I sure don't.
... seal the borders,...
When does that happen? When did it happen?
... round up illegal immigrants,...
Last I heard, he wanted to grant them amnesty, not round them up.
... and kill terrorists, did you?
Anybody know what the body count on dead terrorists is? I sure don't. Don't think it's being advertised for some strange reason...
Thou hast said.
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