RLK, I respectfully submit that you are wrong. George Bush might be disappointing you but he is first and foremost a man who intends to be an effective politician. This requires that he pick his battles and especially select his hills to die on.
Calling a spade a spade about Muslims, especially when there are 5 million in the USA and another 30 million liberal sympathizers, is the equivalent of committing political suicide. The media would finally have something to hang Bush for and in the process of acting "correctly" (in your view) he would become as ineffective a President as Jimmy Carter.
The man is clearly conservative. Every time you are frustrated with a decision of his give him the benefit of the doubt, place yourself in his shoes, and try and surmise his motive. When tough issues arise, I would wager that he calculates very carefully whether to follow the lead of his heart (conservative) or to weight the costs and benefits and let the numbers prescribe his course.
His success in Texas is illustrative. He won his first term by a slim margin, but during the campaign for his second term his popularity and effectiveness was incredibly clear -- so clear that the Democratic Speaker of the Texas House and other Democratic colleagues endorsed Bush the Republican. He was impossible for the Democrats in Texas to fathom. An example of how he works and is able to neutralize opposition may help you. Remember recently when there was an incident with the Inglewood CA police department roughing up a black man? Bush's response was to have Ashcroft deplore police brutality and make appearances of favoring blacks. He really did nothing other than have Ashcroft issue a statement but it took away the press' ability to paint Ashcroft as an extremist and Bush as an uncaring President. I expect some of us Republicans were wondering what in the heck Bush was up to but it is clear that his move was pre-emptive only.
So, have hope, my friend. Even with all branches of legislative Government in Republican hands, we will not get everything we wish. [If it was that easy, Clinton would've gotten everything he wanted from 1993-95 with both the House and Senate in Democratic hands. And he didn't get much of anything that he wanted except for a tax increase, by a margin of one vote.]
George Bush will be the most effective and widely-admired President in the past 50 years when his second term is over. And, with his power base firmly cemented in Washington, I have no doubt that he will lead our nation to recover some of its former greatness in many aspects of our social and political life. And he will be led by his conservative instincts and his Christian faith.
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Doesn't something about that make you wonder if you have been diddled?
A most effective politician - but not very good for this country. Yes, it will keep him in power and yes he might win battles - but to what end. Not to the betterment of this country.
We have been hearing this 'Bush knows what is best' for quite some time now - when will we see any evidence of this? I am being serious here. WE got a tax cut - that has evaporated - what else?
There has to come a time when even those who think he walks on water are going to have to admit that he may not know what he is doing, or that he may know exactly what he is doing and that is very frightening.