Times are tough for the Republican Party and its candidates. Earlier this month, according to Gallup, more people strongly disapproved of George W. Bush [1] than any previous president since the advent?of polling—and, really, how could things be any different? Bush can boast of an unwinnable quagmire in Iraq [2], a decimated housing market, economic instability and a collapsing dollar, a dysfunctional health-care system, a still-devastated Gulf Coast, a wealth gap of a scope unseen since the Great Depression and a pervasive and disturbing image of America as a hapless, blundering giant, rather than a beacon of freedom and morality in the world.
So says Kos [3], who sounds rather like a gradeschooler, complaining “But Teacher, it’s MY turn on the slide!!!” If this is the kind of mindless sludge we have to look forward to from him at Newsweek, I’d say Rove [4]is going to have a rather easy time with him, assuming they do a point/counterpoint format… which they don’t seem to be doing this week.. Not to steal Rove’s fire, here, but I’m going to demonstrate how easy it is to backhand this clown, Kos:
Kos, ol’ buddy, Im sure that’s the picture you’d like to paint… and in this you’ve had MSM help. But here’s the facts:
- Far from being unwinnable, we ARE in fact winning both the war, and the peace [5] in Iraq.. a point even the leftist MSM is starting to admit. [6]
- The housing market is cyclical, and is not collapsing, [7]though the looming tax increases being offered by Democrats isn’t helping the housing market, either.
- What Economic problems there are come down to two things: Energy and the Democrats refusal to allow us to build our own Energy infrastructure [8] (IE, drill our own oil) all supposedly to to ‘save the environment’. It is the Democrats who have forced us into getting oil from foreign countries, because we can’t drill any of what we have available within our own borders.
- The Gulf coast is only devastated where the state government is too incompetent to deal with the situation. Note that while Louisiana still has many problems in terms of recovery from Katrina, equally hard hit Mississippi has problems that are not nearly on the same scale. The difference? The state government in Louisiana is run by incompetent Democrats, who have had a lock on the state for generations, whereas Mississippi is run by more competent people of both parties, who recognize that it’s the state government, not the federal, which is responsible for such things. And since, in Louisiana, the monies the Federal government provide for recovery efforts largely remain undistributed by the Democrat run state government there, I think we have a fair enough idea where the blame ought to be going.
The fact was, is and will be that running against Bush on his record will be fruitless for the Democrats since your brining all this up will only serve to remind the voter that he’s done his job, whereas the Democrats have not yet figured out what the job is, exactly, other than beating up on President Bush. It’s a lesson you’ve also, apparently, yet to learn.
Aside from the fact, of course, that Bush isn’t RUNNING.
If that’s the best you’ve got, Kos, you poor old sod , you’re going to be in for a very long year of writing toothless op-eds for Newsweek.
Discussion, Memeorandum
(Edit:1515, Bit )