ZOT! Can there be a serious challenge to Bush in the GOP primaries?

John Buchanan is a journalist and magazine writer based in Miami Beach ^ | november 29, 2003 | john buchanan

[Republican Challenger]

I am a nationally published journalist who has been drafted to challenge George W. Bush in the Republican Presidential primaries, beginning in New Hampshire on January 27. My aim is to prompt legitimate debate and genuine new ideas, but I start with a question:

HAS GEORGE W. BUSH BETRAYED TRADITIONAL GOP VALUES?

He has failed in his promise to control spending. Nondefense spending has skyrocketed under Bush. The Congressional Budget Office reported that for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2003, nondefense spending rose 7% – nearly double the 4% discretionary spending caps Bush promised to enforce (Source: Washington Times). Since Bush took office, nondefense spending has leapt 13% -- 21% if spending on the war on terrorism is included. “My impression of Bush,” says Chris Edwards, director of fiscal policy at the libertarian Cato Institute, “is that I’ve never seen him give a speech in which he says government is too big and we need to cut costs.”

He has failed in his promise to keep America strong. Under Bush, U.S. foreign policy and international esteem have reached historic lows. After spending hundreds of billions of dollars since 9/11, the Bush administration has failed to catch Osama bin Laden, failed to find Saddam Hussein, failed to defeat Al Qaeda, and failed to stabilize Iraq after an invasion that his own Pentagon policy adviser, Richard Perle, now admits was “illegal.” As a result, the geopolitical balance of power has been jolted, traditional allies have been severely alienated, and as a result, the European Union – led by Great Britain – is now conducting secret talks about the formation of an EU military force outside NATO.

He has failed in his promise to be a “compassionate conservative.” Perhaps never before has a U.S. President so divided the country, according to a recent Time cover story. Despite Bush’s promise to be “a uniter, not a divider,” he has turned Republican against Democrat, rich against poor, Christian against Muslim. He has eroded our civil liberties and Constitutional rights in the name of “national security” and aided and abetted a corporate elite class in the theft of the Republican Party and the two-century-old values that made it the Party of Lincoln. “Corporations have been enthroned,” Lincoln said presciently before he died. “…An era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people…until wealth is aggregated in a few hands…and the Republic is destroyed.” Under Bush, Lincoln’s ominous – and accurate – prediction might find its final manifestation unless he and the “neo-con” corporate juggernaut are stopped.

DO YOU AGREE? Please let me know your thoughts. There will be more to come from me, including a detailed platform and agenda for ending the corporate reign in this country, shrinking the federal bureaucracy, and restoring Constitutional freedoms to pre-9/11 levels. Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to your comments and questions.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Wow. Thanks. :0)

[Peace will be here soon]

You say you are "personally opposed to abortion", if this is so, how can you support first trimester and at-risk abortions ? There seems to be a conflict in your stance on this issue. You should change the wording of "support" to I "accept but do not agree with the US Supreme Court ruling on this issue". That would be easier for someone like me to digest , being someone who opposes the procedure completely.

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"I would enforce our borders as energetically as I would homeland security." ..... I do not know your record on enforcing homeland security, so I cannot come to a conclusion on what you would do to address the illegal immigration issue. What about "all" the illegals currently in this country , would you support deporting them as the are picked up? I need a few more specifics.

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"I would re-vamp and better enforce the entire visa process as a critical matter of national security."
This is a nice sound bite that appears to take a hard stance, but again lacks the specifics for me to come to a general idea of what you would actually do about the H1B and L1 visa issue.

[eddie willers]

Bingo.

Just so.

[Chad Fairbanks]

He's writing a book - has a deal with a publisher - about his presidential run. Need I say more?

[Kevin Curry]

Perhaps never before has a U.S. President so divided the country, according to a recent Time cover story. Despite Bush’s promise to be “a uniter, not a divider,”

Bill Clinton is the prime culprit. Clinton's cynical, self-serving, and lamentable presidency fractured the left and right into sharply polarized camps, and incited them to contend fiercely against each other in a great cultural civil war.

In this war, the left is losing. Its Godless ideology of enforced socialism to "improve" the people has been discredited and proven to be an expensive and catastrophic failure. The left has no fresh or workable ideas left to it. All it has is its rage, but that is enough to keep it dangerous. When liberals such as Dukakis lament that this is the darkest and most bleak period of American History, they are really betraying their own sense of impotence and increasing irrelevance. They will not go quietly into that dark night.

Yet Bush has pushed through liberal-oriented legislation such as the Leave No Child Behind Act, the Medicare prescription plan, and the Africa AIDS initiative. These have won him no support from the the left. They have merely howled more loudly. What do they hate about Bush? In large part, they despise him because he rejects the moral relativism of the left and wears his Christianity openly and unashamedly. And the depth of their loathing is a reflection of their own panicked sense they are losing the debate.

And to answer your question, you don't have even the slimmest of chances of mounting a credible challenge to Bush in the primary. No Republican does.

[CounterCounterCulture]

He is simply mining fodder for his upcoming book.

Maybe he'll plagiarize us and then we can sue him and make a mint. :-)

Bookmark now, reap the benefits later.

[Chad Fairbanks]

We nailed that at the same time.

[woodyinscc]

Heck, go ahead and run. I know of one County in Florida, that is good for 3000 votes, just on your name alone. The Nazi article you expound, has to be good for a few thousand. At the very least it will add a few bottom feeders over at DU to your total. Your cutting edge medical care proposal, will perk the interest of the trans- gender community, add a few more votes. If you can come up with a few more key proposals, you will have people voting for you, that you would not have in your own house. Yeah! keep going, thats the ticket.!

[A Citizen Reporter]

BWHAHAHA! I was just going to post this excerpt to you.

"He also has a deal with a publisher to write -- after his race is done -- a book about his 2004 run.

Look at this, the media "profiteer" is running on a platform to stop the "war profiteers". How fitting!

[ConservativeMan55]

LOL!

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Very true. I see he just wants to make money off this too.

Money grubbing... oh I forgot he is a journalist That means that it is ok for him to make money off of politics.

[Dan from Michigan]

I figured that from the start.

Free press....free advertisement. Some people can make a lot of money from presidential and gubenatorial runs.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Yup. Stir up some controversy, make a pretty penny with a book deal, and accomplish absolutely nothing of social value. Just like Liberals.

[eddie willers]

We nailed that at the same time.

Cultural Jihad picked up on it too.

He's just in the race in order to sell magazine articles to greedy corporate interests. There ought to be a law!

[Republican Challenger]

You need to bone up on your Adam Smith. He's at the core of my economic plan. He favored pure market economics, not "free trade" as practiced today. I'll have a detailed economic package position paper shortly and Adam SMith will be prominently featured.

[CounterCounterCulture]

This is what it's all REALLY about. Not values, beliefs, priniples or anything like that. It's money, pure and simple.

Sounds like...capitalism...evil corporate America...maybe he should spread his wealth to "the masses" (us) if he becomes evil-rich off the book (which he won't)

[Chad Fairbanks]

It dives me an idea though - maybe I can run as a republican on the democrat ticket, and write a book... wonder what my advance would be? ;0)

[Chad Fairbanks]

I don't begrudge anyone making an honest buck - but, I'd prefer they at least be honest about it :0)

[Republican Challenger]

Afgahnistan is becoming an embarassment. Iraq is already an embarrassment. North Korea has saber rattled to the point where Bush looks foolish. Iran's the same. Where's the perception of our 'might" -- a key factor in winning the Cold War?

[Chad Fairbanks]

Afgahnistan is becoming an embarassment. Iraq is already an embarrassment. North Korea has saber rattled to the point where Bush looks foolish. Iran's the same. Where's the perception of our 'might" -- a key factor in winning the Cold War?

So, does this mean you'll be making joint appearances with Hillary Clinton on her next Demoralization Tour of the Mideast?