Actually it would be more accurate to recognize some basic facts about George Bush.
1. He has committed himself to advancing major parts of the conservative agenda i.e. tax cuts, conservative judges, missle defense, privatize Social Security, etc.
2. Bush trys to reach out to the soccer moms and other non-political types by making some sort of warm and fuzzy liberal-sounding statements (like speaking to the NAACP, that wasn't to get their vote it was to get the soccer mom vote.) These upset and annoy conservatives, but do very little harm to the conservative agenda.
3. Bush is so desperate to regain control of the senate. That he is willing to sign many bad bills, in order to deny the democrats issues.
4. Bush is trying so hard to set a high standard of Presidential behavior (to repair the damage that Clinton has done.) That he is failing to engage in the politics necessary to advance the conservative agenda. (e.g. fighting for his judges.)
His tax cuts were a pittance in relation to the major spending programs he has signed onto.
As for appointing conservative judges and privatizing social security, how many conservative judges have been confirmed, and what concrete steps have been taken toward privatizing social security? Talk is cheap. Doing the legwork to see both become reality requires commitment and stamina.
As far as missile defense is concerned, pulling out of the ABM treaty was a step in the right direction. Now let’s watch and see how many more steps in the right direction he takes, post ABM. The senate armed forces committee is determined to cut missile defense funding for 2003. Bush cannot capitulate on this. The PAC-3 antimissile system, and the sea-based and ground-based missile intercept programs desperately require additional funding and need to be continued (especially in light of Iran and North Korea spending billions every year developing long-range weapons). This is not the time to cut funding for such programs (as if there ever were such a time). Bush has never been in a better position to press for a well-funded missile defense program (and his new pact with Russia should silence those poised to label him a hawk). If the President doesn’t make the most of his current popularity in order to sufficiently fund missile defense (senate foot-draggers notwithstanding), he has betrayed his conservative base in the worst way possible….where national security is at risk.
Bush is so desperate to regain control of the senate that he is willing to sign many bad bills, in order to deny the democrats issues.
A certain amount of compromise is necessary in order to be an effective leader, but not when compromise includes signing bad legislation so as to deny public opinion ammunition to one’s ideological enemies. That is called surrendering (no matter how temporarily, or seemingly insignificantly) to the political and media information manipulators/propagandists. It amounts to allowing himself (and the people who elected him) to fall victim to ideological extortion. Not the kind of strength of character one seeks in the leader of the free world. (When he was in kindergarten, do you suppose he maintained a steady diet of insects because the playground bullies warned him, ‘Eat that bug or I’ll tell everyone your mother wears army boots.’?) I, for one, am not into insect eating….especially when those seeking to feed them to me are leftists.
Bush is trying so hard to set a high standard of Presidential behavior (to repair the damage that Clinton has done) that he is failing to engage in the politics necessary to advance the conservative agenda.
I’m scratchin’ my head here. Are you offering this explanation in the President’s defense? Do you think a President should devote one iota of his time or energy making mental comparisons (and hoping that others will, as well) between himself and his predecessor (no matter the vermin-like nature of the man who occupied the oval office before him)? A man of character will be recognized as such without having to focus on exhibiting it for public consumption. Among a myriad of other things, Ronald Reagan taught us that.