Comments on: Prof Bainbridge Is Mad As Hell

By: Solo Dialogue

Solo Dialogue — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 20:11:26 +0000

The Dregs of Summer. (Politically Speaking)

Congress is in recess, the President is on vacation (again), much of Washington is on the Delaware Shore, heck even The Note is away. So there is little, or nothing going on in Washington. Cindy Sheehan and how hard the Democrats will blast away at J…

By: Decision ‘08 » Blog Archive » Two Followups

Decision ‘08 » Blog Archive » Two Followups — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 17:36:19 +0000

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By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 04:16:03 +0000

peter, while ~~I disagree with many of your points~~ I am less concerned about the lack of domestic accomplishments than you are, I do admire the way you put ~~them~~ your concerns - Iraq as a 'Gentleman's C' for Bush - I quite like that. Well done...

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 04:13:13 +0000

No, of course not; I see your point, and I’m not saying that without the Kos, MoDo, et al, that things would be going swimmingly. What I am saying is this: whipping up negativity, relentlessly, and unfairly (i.e., without admitting anything positivie at all is coming from our Iraq efforts) is bound to affect the political climate sooner or later, particularly when the relentless drumbeat of doom is sounding, as it does, every day without fail, from the columnists of the New York Times, as an example. As the defeatism takes hold, the political pressure rises to withdraw the troops as soon as possible; and that means, get that constitution done, right or wrong, quickly…

By: ah yes

ah yes — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 04:08:05 +0000

“Indeed, there is a sense that the consitutional process is being rushed for the consumption of the American public. Thus does the harmful rhetoric of MoDo, Frank Rich, Cindy Sheehan, and the Kossacks begin to show its ill effects…”

ah, the stab-in-the-back theory rears its lovely head once again…if we succeed, it’s all because of us! but if we fail, it’s because the other side didn’t support us! If DailyKos weren’t around, there’d be no rampant Islamic fundamentalism in Iraq right now, yes…

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 04:03:35 +0000

Your prayer may be answered yet…but yes, the irritation is palpable. I’m hoping the Saddam trial starts soon…it might shake of some of the spreading negativity…

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 03:32:37 +0000

I’m not getting wobbly and defeatist, but I am irritated by the sense of missed opportunities in Iraq. I realize it may be a case of “geez I could hit .280 with a little practice”, i.e, effectively rebuilding an entire country while trying to defeat a fanatical enemy is a lot harder than it looks from our armchairs. Fortunately for us conservatives, it’s an even greater missed opportunity for the Dems.

Good point, Mark, on the price of victory in Iraq. I remember my prayer on election night, “God, please, I’ll trade you eight years of Hillary down the road if you’ll just give me GWB now…”

By: peter

peter — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 02:42:36 +0000

Agreed — although we don’t know if the lack of a terrorist event since 9/11 is due to Bush or to the fact that nothing was attempted, I will give Bush the benefit of the doubt. However, I don’t think that pursuing terrorists and advancing domestic agenda are mutually exclusive. We have been at war before without domestic policy coming to a standstill. Geez, even Nixon achieved a lot while the VietNam war was at its height. I think that the Iraq war is sort of a Gentleman’s C for Bush — being a war president was enough to get him elected, so he didn’t have to spend much time on his other courses.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 02:16:57 +0000

Well, peter, you may have a point; I could turn the domestic equation upside-down and say, what domestic accomplishment did Bush really go for and not get, other than, of course, the biggie of Social Security reform, which does appear dead at the moment.

Of course, this meagerness, as you say, of domestic accomplishments is not surprising, giving that this is the President chosen by Providence to preside in the post-9/11 era. Foreign affairs so dominate our lives that domestic conservatism is not my number one priority at the moment.

Finally, let me throw out one more domestic accomplishment; no major terrorist incidents on our shores in the 4 years since that horrible September day…that’s a pretty good accomplishment, right there…

By: peter

peter — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 02:07:08 +0000

If those are the only domestic accomplishments you can cite, it is a pretty meager record. Did the Bush tax cuts help the economy in the short run? Along with the Fed lowering interest rates to record levels — which probably did more to stimulate the economy — yes, they certainly did. However, the government can always stimulate the economy by borrowing money — the Weimer Republic was pretty good at that — but once Asian central banks stop paying for the tax cuts by buying government paper, I’m not sure how you would view the Bush tax cuts.

CAFTA? I’m all for it — I wish Bush were as committed to free trade as Clinton was. But with Central America being a miniscule part of our trade, it will never amount to much. John Roberts? Not confirmed yet. The energy bill was a giveback to various constituencies and even Bush doesn’t claim that it will do much to solve the energy problem. (Not to mention that it was above Bush’s ammounced veto limit, and that last week the administration relaxed fuel economy standards to benefit Hummers, Excursions. etc.).

If you want to compare what has been achieved in the first 4 1/2 years of the Clinton administration — or, for that matter, the Reagan years – I don’t see how you can find much to praise.