DAN BALZ
Posted on 09/07/2005 3:27:33 PM PDT by Crackingham
When terrorists struck on Sept. 11, 2001, Americans came together in grief and resolve, rallying behind President Bush in an extraordinary show of national unity. But when Hurricane Katrina hit last week, the opposite occurred, with Americans dividing along sharply partisan lines in their judgment of the president's and the federal government's response.
The starkly different verdicts on Bush's stewardship of the two biggest crises of his presidency underscore the deepening polarization of the electorate that has occurred on his watch. This gaping divide has left the president with no reservoir of good will among his political opponents at a critical moment of national need and has touched off a fresh debate about whether he could have done anything to prevent it.
To his critics, Bush is now reaping what he has sown. Their case against him goes as follows: Facing a divided nation, the president has eschewed unity in both his governing strategy and his political blueprint. These opponents argue that he has favored confrontation over conciliation with the Democrats while favoring a set of policies aimed at deepening support among his conservative base at the expense of ideas that might produce bipartisan consensus and broader approval among the voters. His allies and advisers, while acknowledging that polarization has worsened during the past five years, say the opposition party bears the brunt of responsibility. Democrats, by this reckoning, have rebuffed Bush's efforts at bipartisanship, put up a wall to ideas that once enjoyed some support on their side, and, even in the current crisis along the Gulf Coast, are seeking to score political points rather than joining hands with the president to speed the recovery and relief to the victims.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Can't please all of the people all of the time....
Ol' Dan Balz kind of left out the Democrat "governor" of Louisiana, and the Democrat "mayor" of New Orleans...
Wishful thinking at best, sawdust for brains more likely.
Thats what the liberals in the mainstream media would want us to believe. Afterall, they are the ones trying to create the divide.
It is an evil Karl Rove plot to make all the Dems look like losers so no one wants to become one... *evil laugh*....
The people of the country were united after 9-11 but the partisanship nastiness went on in politics. It's still there and looming ever larger. The dem/lib/lefties don't change. They'd rather blame than be constructive. Poor little weasels...they have not solutions to anything so they attack, attack, attack.
Well, we know the Evil Cheney seeded the clouds to start and strengthen the Hurricane. The ChimpBush needed a distraction, and thought he might even get some bipartisan loving in the aftermath of the carnage that might bump his sagging approval ratings up (sagging due to the quagmire in Iraq, of course)
These people are completely delusional.
One gets the impression they view Bush, Cheney and Rove sitting around the table saying "Dammit! No sympathy bounce whatsoever! This sucks!" Then, in a calmer voice: "Is there something else we can do? How about if we plant a nuclear bomb in Richmond, VA and set it off? We can blame it on the terrorists, and that might bring people over to our side..."
Too bad for him this was written before the CNN poll that reveals what B.S. this--like most of his stuff--is.
Its called Democrats DESPERATE for an ISSUE, but this will backfire, the Democratic Politicians in NO and LA, screwed this one up.
The Dems eff'ed up badly to the tune of about 10,000 dead and they know it. It's all-out war.
Bingo! They know their guilty, and this is why they are screaming the loudest.
Some enterprising analyst could have lots of fun with Lexis-Nexus and search criteria of "President Clinton" and "divisive" as opposed to "President Bush" and "divisive." Throw in "Clinton-haters" and "Bush-haters" for good measure...
Yo, Media Research Center? Accuracy in Media?
This guy Balz is about as dumb as they come. He, like the rest of the MSM don't have a clue!!!
This post can be refuted in three words:
More than Clinton?
The divide is for a smaller and smaller segment as more will understand that the DemonRATS are unfit to care for the security of the human beings they have been given to protect.
This will be a cleansing process as New Orleans washes out the vermin, the poisen and disease back into the levee and then to the Gulf. It will be a cleansing process for the nation.
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