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Article #17681Re: AN APOLOGY FROM A BUSH VOTER
From: chuck
Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2006 19:54
Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2006 19:54
200 lines
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12223 bytes
fraazzl wrote: > www.kabc.com > > AN APOLOGY FROM A BUSH VOTER > By Doug McIntyre > Host, McIntyre in the Morning > Talk Radio 790 KABC > > There's nothing harder in public life than admitting you're wrong. By > the way, admitting you're wrong can be even tougher in private life. > If you don't believe me, just ask Bill Clinton or Charlie Sheen. But > when you go out on the limb in public, it's out there where everyone > can see it, or in my case, hear it. > > So, I'm saying today, I was wrong to have voted for George W. Bush. In > historic terms, I believe George W. Bush is the worst two-term > President in the history of the country. Worse than Grant. I also > believe a case can be made that he's the worst President, period. > > In 2000, I was a McCain guy. I wasn't sure about the Texas Governor. > He had name recognition and a lot of money behind him, but other than > that? What? Still, I was sick of all the Clinton shenanigans and the > thought of President Gore was... unthinkable. So, GWB became my guy. > > For the first few months he was just flubbing along like most new > Presidents, no great shakes, but no disasters either. He cut taxes and > I like tax cuts. > > Then September 11th happened. September 11th changed everything for > me, like it did for so many of you. After September 11th, all the > intramural idiocy of American politics stopped being funny. We had > been attacked by a vicious and determined enemy and it was time for > all of us to row in the same direction. > > And we did for the blink of an eye. I believed the President when he > said we were going to hunt down Bin Laden and all those responsible > for the 9-11 murders. I believed President Bush when he said we would > go after the terrorists and the nations that harbored them. > > I supported the President when he sent our troops into Afghanistan, > after all, that's where the Taliban was, that's where al-Qaida trained > the killers, that's where Bin Laden was. > > And I cheered when we quickly toppled the Taliban government, but > winced when we let Bin Laden escape from Tora-Bora. > > Then, the talk turned to Iraq and I winced again. > > I thought the connection to 9-11 was sketchy at best. But Colin Powell > impressed me at the UN, and Tony Blair was in, and after all, he was a > Clinton guy, not a Bush guy, so I thought the case had to be strong. I > was worried though, because I had read the Wolfowitz paper, "The > Project for the New American Century." It's been around since '92, and > it raised alarm bells because it was based on a theory, "Democratizing > the Middle East" and I prefer pragmatism over theory. I was worried > because Iraq was being justified on a radical new basis, "pre-emptive > war." Any time we do something without historical precedent I get > nervous. > > But the President shifted the argument to WMDs and the urgent threat > of Iraq getting atomic weapons. The debate turned to Saddam passing > nukes on to terror groups. After 9-11, the risk was too great. As the > President said, "The next smoking gun might be a mushroom cloud." At > least that's what I thought at the time. > > I grew up in New York and watched them build the World Trade Center. I > worked with a guy, Frank O'Brien, who put the elevators in both > towers. I lost a very close friend on September 11th. 103 floor, tower > one, Cantor Fitzgerald. Tim Coughlin was his name. If we had to take > out Iraq to make sure something like that, or worse, never happened > again, so be it. I knew the consequences. We have a soldier in our > house. None of this was theoretical in my house. > > But in the months and years since shock and awe I have been shocked > repeatedly by a consistent litany of excuses, alibis, double-talk, > inaccuracies, bogus predictions, and flat out lies. I have watched as > the President and his administration changed the goals, redefined the > reasons for going into Iraq, and fumbled the good will of the world > and the focus necessary to catch the real killers of September 11th. > > I have watched the President say the commanders on the ground will > make the battlefield decisions, and the war won't be run from > Washington. Yet, politics has consistently determined what the troops > can and can't do on the ground and any commander who did not go along > with the administration was sacked, and in some cases, maligned. > > I watched and tried to justify the looting in Iraq after the fall of > Saddam. I watched and tried to justify the dismantling of the entire > Iraqi army. I tired to explain the complexities of building a > functional new Iraqi army. I urged patience when no WMDs were found. > Then the Vice President told us we were in the "waning days of the > insurgency." And I started wincing again. The President says we have > to stay the course but what if it's the wrong course? > > It was the wrong course. All of it was wrong. We are not on the road > to victory. We're about to slink home with our tail between our legs, > leaving civil war in Iraq and a nuclear armed Iran in our wake. Bali > was bombed. Madrid was bombed. London was bombed. And Bin Laden is > still making tapes. It's unspeakable. The liberal media didn't create > this reality, bad policy did. > > Most historians believe it takes 30-50 years before we get a > reasonably accurate take on a President's place in history. So, maybe > 50 years from now Iraq will be a peaceful member of the brotherhood of > nations and George W. Bush will be celebrated as a visionary genius. > > But we don't live fifty years in the future. We live now. We have to > make public policy decisions now. We have to live with the > consequences of the votes we cast and the leaders we chose now. > > After five years of carefully watching George W. Bush I've reached the > conclusion he's either grossly incompetent, or a hand puppet for a > gaggle of detached theorists with their own private view of how the > world works. Or both. > > Presidential failures. James Buchanan, Franklin Pierce, Jimmy Carter, > Warren Harding-- the competition is fierce for the worst of the worst. > Still, the damage this President has done is enormous. It will take > decades to undo, and that's assuming we do everything right from now > on. His mistakes have global implications, while the other failed > Presidents mostly authored domestic embarrassments. > > And speaking of domestic embarrassments, let's talk for a minute about > President Bush's domestic record. Yes, he cut taxes. But tax cuts > combined with reckless spending and borrowing is criminal > mismanagement of the public's money. We're drunk at the mall with our > great grandchildren's credit cards. Whatever happened to the party of > fiscal responsibility? > > Bush created a giant new entitlement, the prescription drug plan. He > lied to his own party to get it passed. He lied to the country about > its true cost. It was written by and for the pharmaceutical industry. > It helps nobody except the multinationals that lobbied for it. So much > for smaller government. In fact, virtually every tentacle of > government has grown exponentially under Bush. Unless, of course, it > was an agency to look after the public interest, or environmental > protection, and/or worker's rights. > > I've talked so often about the border issue, I won't bore you with a > rehash. It's enough to say this President has been a catastrophe for > the wages of working people; he's debased the work ethic itself. "Jobs > Americans won't do!" He doesn't believe in the sovereign borders of > the country he's sworn to protect and defend. And his devotion to > cheap labor for his corporate benefactors, along with his worship of > multinational trade deals, makes an utter mockery of homeland security > in a post 9-11 world. The President's January 7th, 2004 speech on > immigration, his first trial balloon on his guest worker scheme, was a > deal breaker for me. I couldn't and didn't vote for him in 2004. And > I'm glad I didn't. > > Katrina, Harriet Myers, The Dubai Port Deal, skyrocketing gas prices, > shrinking wages for working people, staggering debt, astronomical > foreign debt, outsourcing, open borders, contempt for the opinion of > the American people, the war on science, media manipulation, faith > based initives, a cavalier attitude toward fundamental freedoms-- this > President has run the most arrogant and out-of-touch administration in > my lifetime, perhaps, in any American's lifetime. > > You can make a case that Abraham Lincoln did what he had to do, the > public be damned. If you roll the dice on your gut and you're right, > history remembers you well. But, when your gut led you from one > business failure to another, when your gut told you to trade Sammy > Sosa to the White Sox, and you use the same gut to send our sons and > daughters to fight and die in a distraction from the real war on > terror, then history will and should be unapologetic in its > condemnation. > > It may be decades before we have the full picture of how paranoid and > contemptuous this administration has been. And I am open to the > possibility that I'm all wet about everything I've just said. But I'm > putting it out there, because I have to call it as I see it, and this > is how I see it today. I don't say any of this lightly. I've thought > about this for months and months. But eventually, the weight of > evidence takes on a gravitational force of its own. > > So, accept my apology for allowing partisanship to blind me to an > obvious truth; our President is incapable of the tasks he is charged > with. I almost feel sorry for him. He is clearly in over his head. > Yet, he doesn't generate the sympathy Warren Harding earned. Harding, > a spectacular mediocrity, had the self-knowledge to tell any and all > he shouldn't be President. George W. Bush continues to act the part, > but at this point whose buying the act? > > Does this make me a waffler? A flip-flopper? Maybe, although I prefer > to call it realism. And, for those of you who never supported Bush, > its also fair to accuse me of kicking Bush while he's down. After all, > you were kicking him while he was up. > > You were right, I was wrong. Republicans, independents, conservatives, etc., must make certain that another fraudulent multiculturalist punk like Bush is not placed in the White House. This is a difficult task as the two major parties will probably offer out the usual sleazebags. Anybody for Hillary, Senator McCain, Obama? Arch http://www.amren.com/index.html American Renaissance
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X-Google-Thread: 104ad1,ff709392e831570f,start X-Google-Thread: 109097,ff709392e831570f,start X-Google-Thread: f59be,ff709392e831570f,start X-Google-Thread: 10fa57,ff709392e831570f,start X-Google-Thread: 10d4c6,ff709392e831570f,start X-Google-Attributes: gid104ad1,gid109097,gidf59be,gid10fa57,gid10d4c6,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!g2news2.google.com!postnews.google.com!h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail From: "chuck" <oldstevens@hotmail.com> Newsgroups: dfw.general,houston.general,tx.guns,ok.general,us.politics Subject: Re: AN APOLOGY FROM A BUSH VOTER Date: 23 Jul 2006 12:54:59 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Lines: 201 Message-ID: <1153684499.675722.4120@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com> References: <7856c29tdagep48boghoe7fe2kr56mt6ha@4ax.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 162.42.85.236 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" X-Trace: posting.google.com 1153684505 16090 127.0.0.1 (23 Jul 2006 19:55:05 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2006 19:55:05 +0000 (UTC) In-Reply-To: <7856c29tdagep48boghoe7fe2kr56mt6ha@4ax.com> User-Agent: G2/0.2 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; .NET CLR 1.1.4322),gzip(gfe),gzip(gfe) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com; posting-host=162.42.85.236; posting-account=5MWAkQ0AAAANfx7CXLZXAwD88IPd7ZNL