Free Republic

As President Bush prepares for his State of the Union address next week, I am preparing myself for a night of media elites discussing how much the president has "grown" since setting up house on Pennsylvania Avenue. They have discussed his "growing" spurt countless times since Sept. 11, and I feel certain the subject will surface again during the traditional year-opening televised address Tuesday. Indeed, our president appears larger than life these days. His approval numbers are through the roof, and his leadership in recent months has left all of us a little breathless. But any claims of "growth" ...

Wednesday, January 23rd 8/7pm The Bush White House: Inside the Real West Wing Tom Brokaw invites you to join him for a day in the life of President Bush.

GEORGE BUSH Jr might have as his motto: never knowingly overestimated. It is a principle that has served him well during his first year in office. Rarely has a leader of the Western world started out with lower expectations among opinion formers; rarely have the latter been proved wrong so thoroughly and so soon. Taking Ronald Reagan as his model, rather than his own father, Bush the younger has cultivated an unpretentious image which has deceived many of America's enemies. Yet the Left-liberal caricature of President Bush as a bumbling idiot suited him just fine. His shrewd and energetic pursuit ...

<p>WASHINGTON — President Bush marked the end of his first 365 days in office Sunday, giving the White House cause to reflect on the bright spots of a tragic year.</p> <p>"It's fair to say that this first year has been a year of results and progress and it's also been a year of challenge and defense of our freedoms, as a result of the attack on our country," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.</p>

Accomplishments of the past year Handling the worst attack on American soil in the history of this country. Handling the spy-plane incident with China Signing one of the largest tax-cuts in American history. Signing a large defense bill. The most admired man in America of the year 2001 according to Gallup. The largest and most sustained approval rating in the history of these polls. Including a 93% approval rating by a WashPost/Abc News poll, the highest approval showing in the gallup poll, and an unchanged approval rating in the mid-80's for the last 4 months. The destruction of the ...

'This presidency will come down to earth one day, but it will take more than a pretzel' Maybe, when he returned to the White House after his inaugural gala on the night of 20 January 2001, George Bush allowed himself reasonably to believe that things might be a little better in a year. Having won the presidency in the most controversial circumstances for a century, he had earlier in the evening almost wrenched his daughter Jenna out of her ballgown in a particularly clumsy pas de deux. But never in his wildest imagination (and the 43rd President is no more ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - It was ``must-see Thursday'' at the White House as a dozen NBC news cameras shadowed President Bush (news - web sites) through an unusually packed made-for-TV schedule. He walked his dogs, huddled with CIA (news - web sites) and FBI (news - web sites) briefers, reached out to labor union leaders, pored over education policy with his advisers, lunched with Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites), waxed profoundly about the presidency to White House Fellows, talked NATO (news - web sites) expansion with the Lithuanian president, signed a bill into law, gave marching orders to ...

PRESIDENT George W. Bush yesterday poured scorn on Osama bin Laden and made clear that despite Afghan calls for a quick end to US bombing, the United States would hunt the world's most wanted man for as long as it took to find him – dead or alive. In a voice dripping with sarcasm, Mr Bush described bin Laden as a man on the run, and a man who, in three months, had swapped control of a country for control of a cave. Making his first direct comments since a new videotape of bin Laden set off reports that the ...

NewsMax.com &nbsp; Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2001 Bush Is Most Admired Man in Gallup Poll's History Americans admire President Bush the most of any man since the Gallup Poll began asking in 1948. When the USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll asked respondents to name the living man they admired most, 39 percent chose Bush. Last year, Pope John Paul II and then-president Bill Clinton tied for first place with a mere 6 percent. &quot;Typically, the president wins, but the president doesn't usually dominate. That's why this 39 percent is unusual,&quot; said Frank Newport, editor in chief of The Gallup Poll. Bush's successful war ...

Does he measure up to other wartime Presidents? Yes, say six historians, who give him high marks for winning public trust and having faith in his advisers. Six current historians have looked at President Bush's presidency so far, and all have given him good marks. This article is about as unbiased as Time Magazine could manage, although they couldn't avoid a few barbs.

Waiting on the prez After dinner, after the dignitaries had left, a guy in a blue suit came back to the kitchen -- a Texan named George. - - - - - - - - - - - - By Cullen Thomas Dec. 5, 2001 | We were in the spacious dining room at the top of the Waldorf Towers, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N.'s residence, looking down at the place settings on the table. Good-looking china made especially for the State Department: richly blue-ringed plates and glassware eblazoned with an eagle. I stood off to the side in ...

<p>ASHINGTON - The call from Andrea Ball, Laura Bush's chief of staff, was urgent: Could 12 Afghan women, in Washington for a leadership workshop, dash over to the White House to meet with her?</p> <p>Melanne Verveer, head of an international women's leadership group and Hillary Rodham Clinton's top staff member when her husband was president, was happy to oblige. She hurried the women out of a session on communication skills and led them to the mansion.</p>

Free Republic has had one helluva run over the last five years or so. We helped impeach one president and helped get another into office. We've been active in demonstrations and protests in nearly every city across the nation. We've participated in conventions, petition drives, activism campaigns and projects for dozens of conservative causes. We've grown from a tiny web site with a few hundred posters and readers from the time of inception in 1996, to one with tens of thousands of participants today. Along the way we've made lots of great friends and, unfortunately, also made lots of bitter ...

Federal Court Nominee Call for Action Please add your signature to this action alert, urging the members of the US Senate to act quickly to confirm these judicial nominees! The ACLJ will deliver this document to all members of the United States Senate. A Call for Action To Senator Thomas Daschle, Majority Leader To Senator Trent Lott, Minority Leader To All Members of the United States Senate President George W. Bush has nominated well-qualified men and women to the federal courts. It is entirely appropriate that the Senate should confirm them speedily, especially with some 100 vacancies on the bench. ...

In a candid conversation, the President and First Lady talk about bin Laden, prayer, civil liberties, exercise, No. 41 and the war ahead It was the day before Thanksgiving, and George and Laura Bush were flying west for a morale-boosting visit to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky. The news from Afghanistan was good and the president was in a relaxed, expansive mood for this interview. Seated at a conference table aboard Air Force One with NEWSWEEK’s Howard Fineman and Martha Brant, the president and First Lady exchanged looks and smiles as they answered questions. She seemed to ...

The battle’s just begun, and George Bush knows it. In a NEWSWEEK exclusive, the First Couple on how the war’s changing America-and them It was easy enough for George and Laura Bush to talk about it now, 10 weeks distant from the dark catastrophe and confusion of that first day. The war was going well—so far. His poll numbers were stratospheric—so far. The way of the war from here would be murky, and no doubt bloody, and unity at home and in the world would be harder to come by. But for now, flying to Kentucky on Air Force One ...

The First Lady expected to play a quiet role. Then the war came. Dec. 3 issue — After 24 years of marriage, Laura Bush knows how to get her restless husband to calm down and listen. When the president remarked that he wanted Osama bin Laden “dead or alive,” Mrs. Bush thought the macho talk made him look more like a hot-tempered cowboy than a coolheaded statesman. George W. Bush can’t stand being lectured, and the First Lady didn’t try. Instead, she pulled out one of the sharpest weapons in her arsenal of persuasion: humor. Sidling up to him later, ...

Friends Say Laura Has At Times Felt Sad and Isolated Since Sept. 11, But She Says Bush Steadies Her NEW YORK, Nov. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- When President George W. Bush remarked that he wanted Osama bin Laden "dead or alive," First Lady Laura Bush thought the macho talk made him look more like a hot tempered cowboy than a cool-headed statesman, writes White House Correspondent Martha Brant in the December 3 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, November 26). Since Bush can't stand being lectured, the first lady decided to use humor to make her point. Sidling up to ...

WASHINGTON- President Bush said he would spend Thanksgiving mindful of the Sept. 11 tragedy that has burdened so many and the war being fought by Americans thousands of miles away. He planned to share a Thanksgiving meal with the first family and friends at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland. On Wednesday, Bush carved turkey for the troops before heading to Camp David with his wife. Americans and Afghans should be thankful for the military's service, Bush says. "Thanks to you, the people of Afghanistan have the hope of a better life," Bush told some 15,000 soldiers at ...

Strategery Or How Bush Keeps Surprising With amazing swiftness and surprising finality, the enemy, once thought tenacious, caved last week. I refer not to the Taliban but to the chattering classes - especially its left-liberal sections. Never before in the field of human conflict have so many armchair generals been exposed as such idiots in such a short period of time. They will not learn, of course. The Guardian and the BBC will move on - with barely a time for taking breath - to yet another negativist attack on the naïve president and his gung-ho aides. But the sudden ...