| Author | Message | ||
     ABM Rating: N/A |
Am I right to think that with the recent (& fairly benign) capture of Iraqi dictator (& long-time Middle East boogieman) Sadaam Hussein, President Bush's 2004 re-election seems all but assured? | ||
| Chris Hayden Rating: N/A |
ABM--still eleven months to go several lifetimes in the life of an election. If the resistance in Iraq totally collapses, everything is humming smooth over there, the economy rebounds with jobs in the recovery, the stock market is still high, Afghanistan straightens out, no waves of immigration come from Mexico or the Caribbean, there are no fumbles with Iran North Korea or Taiwan, the price tag for next year in Iraq is more reasonable, we get some of the 87 billion back from Iraqi Oil revenues he is in good shape. If things are still going like they are now all bets are off. The capture of Hussein might actuallly work against him. He is in possession of some embarassing information about U.S. Iraqi relations in the 70's and 80's. Are they going to try and execute him and possibly make him a martyr? Are they going to have a public trial where he could possibly wind up looking like a hero to some people? Plus Americans are going to want the troops to come home right away now. | ||
| Osama Rating: N/A |
What George Bush lacks in intellect, he makes up for in in luck. I predict that no matter what, Dubya will win in a landslide because the average American still wants to believe that Saddam had something to do with 911. | ||
| Chris Hayden Rating: N/A |
What luck? So far Operation Iraqi Freedom, which should have been a cakewalk, has been a mess. Well, if you count pushing France and Germany together for the first time in hundreds of years maybe--of course they are together against the U.S. The average American may want to believe Saddam had something to do with 9/11--so they got him and we're still over there and the average American is looking at 87 billion of our money just for this year--anything can happen in 11 months--I remember his dad with a 90 percent approval rating after winning the most lop sided victory in history getting tossed out on his ear--and it wasn't just the no new taxes deal, either. | ||
| ABM Rating: |
Chris, I think you maybe overestimating the discernment of Americans. All of what you cite may be legitimate reasons to rebuke Bush. But the public has been so trained to think that EVERYTHING Bush is doing is being done is to protect them from Arab 'Frankensteins', that your criticism will hardly factor into most of their electoral decision come November 2004. And I don't think what happened with Hussein in prior decades will (or should) matter since Bush, Jr. is not to blame for what both Republicans and Democrats helped foster. No, I am afraid Bush will ride back into the White House in a rose-petal victory procession with Sadaam's severed head topping the business-end of a bayonet. | ||
| Chris Hayden Rating: N/A |
ABM: If that is Saddam they got--after all, didn't they say the man had 4 or 6 doubles. None of them have been run down yet, as I recall. I think you may be underestimating the American people. Me and you ain't geniuses we are not the only ones that see what is going down. What has been the case so far is that all this hasn't affected anyone. These are not just reasons to rebuke Bush, these are real disasters, real deaths, real dollars being spent, real blunders, real corruption. I remember how strong support was for Vietnam 'til them bodybags started flooding back--the families of reservists and National Guardsmen who are stuck over there ain't buying the hype. Nearly 2,000 servicemen have deserted the ranks by refusing to return once they have had leave here--the forces over there are steadily growing smaller as the situation grows hairier The people have been lied to, cheated, and led into a mess and the buck stops at Bush. What worries me is, after all he didnt win in 2000--who's to say he just don't decide to keep it if he wants--and he may have to. I have read somewhere that his supporters need another five years in Iraq to get their investment in him to payoff. What do you think about Colin Powell? | ||
| Cynique Rating: N/A |
I agree with ABM, Chris. The American electorate isn't sophisticated enough to do all of that deductive reasoning you apply in reaching your conclusions. Americans have an "us-against-them" mentality and they don't bother with thinking logically. Bush's constituency is rampant with blind patriotism and his constituency is very broad. Plus, a sitting president is never changed in a time of war. I also think that Bush is, indeed, lucky! Things just fall into place for him, always at just the opportune time. If 911 wasn't a lucky strike for him, I don't known what was. The tragedy united a frightened nation behind him and this event continues to allow him to exploit people's irrational fears. Now, the capture of Saddam happens just when his poll numbers were dropping. Or, can his standings help but be bolstered by the Democrats being in a state of disarray. Unfortunately, it looks like the unflappable Mr. Bush is a shoo-in for re-election. As for Colin Powell, there's a kind of perverse symbolism in the idea that in sacrificing his balls on the altar the Republican party, he developed prostate cancer. I hope that since his chances for recovery are excellent, his political affliction will also be healed. | ||
| Chris Hayden Rating: N/A |
All: I guess this is it, then. We're all going to die, aren't we? The ghetto dispoiled. Cattle raped. And I was just getting to enjoy being black, too. | ||
| yukio Rating: N/A |
CH: I agree with ABM and Cynique! The US electorate "isn't sophisticated enough to do all of that deductive reasoning you apply in reaching your conclusions." Need i say more? Well, maybe a little....since folk were murdered on 9/11 US nationalism will win the election for Bush II. | ||
| Cynique Rating: N/A |
No need for doom's day predictions, Chris. Things go in cycles. The Republicans are now enjoying their day in the sun. Of course, it is tricky to try and foresee the future, and I'll be the first to rejoice if my prediction about a Bush victory is wrong! | ||
| Chris Hayden Rating: N/A |
That's the spirit, Cynique! Never say die! | ||
| ABM Rating: N/A |
I have to admit that Cynique very eloquently articulated most of my views about the near-certain Bush re-election. Thanks, sistah gurl! Chris, I was not so much debasing the intellect of American's as much as I am acknowledging and appreciating their sense of priorities. See Chris, you've have got to realize/accept that 911 changed EVERYTHANG. Now, there is a real, persistent fear that at ANY moment, some guy who sitting next to you on a bus, train, plane, restaurant, etc., might, for no reason other than you just happen to be sitting there, blow up himself, you, your kids and 100's of other innocent people. We can conveniently intellectualize the probability of such an event occurring. But that only has to actually happen ONCE for it to ring true and deep for everyone else. I don't like Bush for many reasons, one of the biggest of which being he's a nimrod who's only verifiable talent is being born into the "lucky sperm club"(See Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles and the rest of the shiftless brood of her's; Paris Hilton & co-naredowell Nicole Richie; Osborne kids; etc., for other LSC members). And I sure as heck didn't vote for him. But I must admit that he and his rabid followers have effectively convinced many of us that he is genuinely trying to protect us from imminent harm. Playa, everything else - the economy, healthcare, government corruption, even our laws, freedoms and history - can be conveniently scuttled to the backburner when we have been made to earnestly our 'gallant' President is going to protect us from some (Arab) fool who's out to kill us. In hindsight, perhaps the Democrats made a tactical error when they decided not to blame Bush for 911. There was plenty of reason to blame him. After all, +3,000 American civilians are killed inside of an hour in the heart of the nation's political and economic capitals and the sitting President has done nothing to prevent their murders. Didn't President Harry Truman say "The buck stops here!" Yet Bush managed to 'buck' any/all blame for failing as Commander and Chief. And his lackeys even tried to blame Bush's predecessor for the calamity. Sure the Democrats might have risked momentarily alienating the electorate in a time of mourning. But maybe as time went on, and the crying/condolences subsided, the Dems might have better prepared the public to take a more critical (and cynical) view of the Bush's administration failures to prevent the terrorist attacks. But by never seriously attributing the 911 attacks to Bush and meekly sanctioning his warmongering efforts in Iraq and Afghanastan, the Dem's have allowed Bush to ascend to that near impenetrable and haloed status of hero-protector President. But, even if castigating Bush was the sage course to take, I should admit that at this point that is a convenient bit of "Monday morning quarterbacking". Cynique, your bit about Colin Powell is so poignantly on point that it reminds me of something that I wish I could have written...on a very good day. | ||
| Chris Hayden Rating: N/A |
ABM: I cannot conceive that any terrorist, even the most rabid, crazy terrorist in the world, is going to waste himself and a bomb on a bunch of Negroes on a bus, or in any other place--I don't know what to say. I can just see Osama Bin Laden calling up Bush and saying, "If you don't leave the Muslim holy places, I will attack the South Side of Chicago, the South Bronx, South Central L.A., and him laughing himself to death. I guess they have won. I look out on North St. Louis, which already looks as though somebody has bombed it, and wonder what more can anybody do. Further, I think the odds are that if somebody does something to you, it will be one of these homegrown terrorists. I know what you are saying, that the average citizen is all hyped up on this, and I think this may be true, and I think that maybe somebody should fix up a big batch of Jonestown coolaid and put all these hysterics, who are much more likely to be killed by their own husbands and wives or boyfriends and girlfriends, or to keep over from a stress and grease induced heart attack, or to get killed by a drunk driver, or get struck by lightning, out of their misery. In closing I quote Mike, a street character in my hood who I talked to about 9/11 soon after it happened. "Man, Mike. Wasn't that awful? How does that make you feel?" He looked at me and said, "For a MF like me, it was just another damn day." And he walked away. | ||
| Chris Hayden Rating: N/A |
All: Get a look at what some of the Administrations FRIENDS are saying http://slate.msn.com/id/2092791/ | ||
| Beautifulwaterstar Rating: N/A |
WAG THE DOG |
