Obama’s vision for the future is not the shining city on the hill, it’s sitting in the dark and shivering.

Where are you on this issue?

You claim we are losing on the home front. Becker, the point is that had we not won the home front we would have already surrendered. He got re-elected. The people didn’t give the dems the power to end the war. And we have won the war.

You point to fears of future events as “proof” we have not won, while saying we are winning.

incoherent

Lincoln with the North at his back?

Lincoln would have lost had not Atlanta been taken.

Bush won re-election while Iraq was going badly.

Some people just won’t accept yes for an answer. I had a client one time that complained to a judge when I got criminal charges thrown out against her at prelim hearing so that she wouldn’t have to go to trial. We won without the risk of a jury. Yet, what she wanted was to have her “say”even if she got convicted? a kook

Yes, becker, we have problems in the future. We did after 1865 even though Lincoln’s back was had.

Why do we have problems?
Liberalism and the human tendency toward isolationism.

Not Bush.

non sequitur

I’m glad you realized that I am writing the history and re-engaged.

Yes, we’re on our way to winning the war in Iraq. We are not even close to winning the war here at home. And THAT is my bitch with Bush. The soldiers and Marines have done their job in Iraq and done it well. They’ve paid the price for victory. On the home front the President who sent them to war can’t see his way clear to defend their honor that’s under attack from the Congressional Dems (and some Republicans) and the media on a daily basis.

Your comparison with Lincoln is interesting because he at least managed to come out of the Civil War with the North behind him. He practiced the fine art of involvement and leadership. His head wasn’t stuck in the sand when CongressCritters assailed him, he threatened (and likely would have) jailed them. Lincoln was involved and decisive, GWB is neither.

You keep coming back to the same old points, gc, while absolutely ignoring what I’m saying.

I like the basics of GWB’s foreign policy although the execution with Powell and Condi leaves a whole lot to desire. His domestic performance has been utterly pathetic. His willingness to engage the Ds on any issue is equally pathetic. And his lack of involvement in getting judges vetted and approved is beyond pathetic.

You can cheerlead all you want on the war, but wait until the next time a Republican President should have military action at the head of the table and we’ll see what happens. In all likelihood it will be taken off the table because of the sure knowledge of the Ds that they can control political agenda just like they have with Iraq.

I need no help on the war, certainly not on the Iraq side of things. Frankly, that was never in doubt. But to say we’ve won clearly ignores the political facts on the ground in the country.

(Along these lines, I wonder whether the $20 drop was in response to Pres. Bush’s signing the executive order, or in response to reduced demand…)

We have won the war. Admit it Obam… I mean Becker. I bet you just eat food so no one else can eat it.

Seriously beck? I’ll bet McClellan wasn’t happy when the North won either since Lincoln didn’t win it his way.

He has gathered intel sufficiently well to keep more Americans from being killed. Rounded up sleeper cells, etc.

Did I mention he prevented thousands more Americans from being killed?

Roberts and Alito are on the court. They are stellar. There is no reason to believe the best vetter of judges the gop ever had hadn’t vetted HM well enough given he had 10 years.

‘Beck, get some help on the war. read stratasphere, read letters from zawahiri, look at graves of the aq dead, look at ferris wheel in Baghdad, heck, read the ap and wash post.

We won. be happy

that is an order

smile

Sorry, but I vehemently disagree with every one of your points. I’m just too tired to argue them anymore today.

After the inauguration I’ll write a diary on GWB and we can discuss it then. Until then we just have to suffer through a few more months of his incompetence.

That is just a sophomoric overstatement. Take the lawyer’s advice and avoid those “all” or “never” type words. Come on man, let’s be serious.

Bush named Dems by name in several speeches and thru down the gauntlet with the exec power moratorium elimination.

His strategy is different.

Just like in the war. He has won the war his way. But that’s not good enough for you. That’s sad. It is a great triumph for the US and our armed forces, yet rather than rejoice, you brood.

sad

There is no guarantee that we won’t get the credit. Obviously, it is most likely we will. All the statements and votes of the players are recorded.

President Reagan certainly was NOT a cheerleader, he led. He enunciated ideas that were new to the American people (we can WIN the cold war, the USSR was an evil empire, Mr. G tear down this wall, etc) and provided leadership to see those ideas turn into legislation and to see the Wall come down.

President Bush hasn’t provided leadership on one single issue and his pom-poms haven’t seen much use either.

The problem he’s created with his silence and total lack of leadership on the home front is that he’s abdicated the “high ground” on military issues and national security to the Ds. According to Rasmussen Rs only enjoy a 5 point lead on who’s best with national security and only 1 point on Iraq. He’s allowed the Ds to repeat their lies so often without calling them on it that those lies are accepted as the truth. We find ourselves in a situation now with a D Congress in ‘09, if McCain feels the need to act unilaterally with military action against Iran he may not be able to negotiate the political minefield to do it.

1. On intel, he’s really been on vacation. The NYT and WaPo print classified information about very important programs and the best he can muster is one lousy statement at a press conference. No federal grand jury to investigate the leaks. No pulling of press creds for the offending outlets. He did N.O.T.H.I.N.G.

2. Social Security. He put up no fight at all. He didn’t even bother to offer a program with any specifics at all. He didn’t bother to get the members of his own party on board. This was as dead as HillaryCare that didn’t see the light of day in a Dem Congress. He wasted everybody’s time with this one.

3. Oil. Yeah, we may get something but it will be in the time and in the way that the Ds want it to happen. We get no credit and no bump. Because GWB mailed this one in too.

4. No attacks since 911. Probably because aQ has been busy with virgins in Iraq. I’ll happily give him credit for that. What I won’t do is pass off praise for a war well conducted with his complete and utter failure on the homefront.

5. Roberts and Alito. Or was it HM? Yeah, we got two justices hopefully of very high quality. We did have to take down the WH switchboard for several days to get one of them. And then there’s the little problem of his complete and total inattention to the nominees he sent to the Senate. He’d send them, the Judiciary would stall - FOR YEARS - and he did exactly nothing. His performance on non-SCOTUS nominees has cost us dozens of extraordinarily well qualified appellate and lower court judges including Miguel Estrada who would have been an excellent SCOTUS nominee. He probably wouldn’t accept another nomination if his life depended on it.

6. Tax cuts. He got them through early and only with sunsets on them. And what has he done to make them permanent? Oh yeah, nothing. It’s the Bush trademark.

I absolutely agree with your comment about “putting it in context”. In context, right now, GWB has done an absolutely horrible job as the leader of the Republican Party. Nixon was worse. As far as being President he’s probably a 5 on a 10 scale on a few items and about a 2 on most.

GWB’s performance in office will ultimately be judged by historians. But in the short run, after eight years, he’s pretty well perceived to have botched everything he’s touched. He had some great moments and great opportunities. He’s not capitalized on any of them.

For the Dems to claim to be the party of the “little guy,” yet stand by and watch those at the poverty level (little guy) spend $.50 out of every dollar on energy costs is hypocritical and wrong; the little guy can’t “drive small cars and wait for the wind.” With the liberal media bias, the little guy is unaware of the injustices being done to them by their (more than likely) elected leaders. The censorship Nancy Pelosi attempted to enforce yesterday cannot go unpunished and all American’s must be made aware of what she did. She made attempts to remove the media and the tourists from the galleries (I was in the Capitol for most of the afternoon), and if it weren’t for representives like Virgina Fox (NC) staying in the press gallery and actually escorting random tourists onto the House floor (very awesome to watch, and no, she’s not my rep), Pelosi’s iron fist would’ve ruled supreme.

WE MUST send out mass emails to our friends, spread the word on twitter and RS.com, and keep this event in the forefront for the next five weeks and beyond; because not only does the GOP own the energy agenda, events like this can restore us to our roots and will greatly help us in the Nov. elections.

We may - may - get relief when the current ban expires but you can be guaranteed the Republicans will get no credit and energy will not be able to be nationalized as an issue in the election.

I suspect the bully pulpit will be used in August. But Congress was not going to pass a law in a special session. I have already agreed with you that a special session might be used to drive home political points that could pay off in November. So could other things. But I think a special session would kill the chance for a bill this year and that is what I desperately want as soon as possible.

Now, if President Bush would declare a national emergency and allow drilling, I am for it.

I was Napoleon fan as a teen.

That’s where it begins. That’s where we need to work to ensure that never again are conservatives left with only one Presidential candidate, and a half-hearted one at that.

If the point is that Pres. Bush has not been the cheer-leader-in chief to orate to the US citizens a la Pres. Reagan I agree with that. That is not something that he ever excelled at.

The future of the Republican Party will be not be about Pres. Bush.