What If the Next President Is Even Worse? (Guess who he uses as an example? Yep!)

Yahoo! News / The National Journal ^ | May 28, 2013 | Ron Fournier

[2ndDivisionVet]

George W. Bush in 2001 declared war on a tactic (terrorism), and empowered Big Brother to tap phones, launch drones and indefinitely imprison people without due process.

Barack Obama in 2008 declared those Bush policies an overreach, and pledged to curb drone strikes, protect media freedoms, and close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Instead, he escalated drone strikes and spied on the media. Gitmo is still open for its grim business.

These are facts. And yet, they are distorted by extreme and narrow-minded partisans, supporters of both Bush and Obama.

Conservatives contend that Bush single-handedly prevented a major terrorist strike after Sept. 11, 2001. They demagogue efforts to shift the pendulum back toward civil liberties. Last week, when Obama finally proposed a modest reassessment of the Bush doctrine, Sen. Saxby Chambliss claimed that the efforts "will be viewed by terrorists as a victory."

Liberals hypocritically gave Obama a pass for furthering the same policies they condemned in 2008.....

[demshateGod]

“...a true demagogue or reactionary.”

He throws those terms out as pertaining to Palin and doesn’t back them up. Is that not what a demagogue does?

[Pan_Yan]

Give Ron Fournier some credit. He cracked a window and the smoke in his office has cleared enough for him to begin to see the hazy outline of what many of us understood clearly 11 years ago: the powers that Bush assumed after 9/11 (Patriot Act / DHS) could and would be readily abused by a future president with no scruples, no limits to his power and no fear of reprisal. Of course Ron still can't see that the president he fears is already in office but he's at least headed in the right direction.

[SECURE AMERICA]

Someone thinks that it is possible to have a worse President for America than one that has spent his whole terms trying to destroy America? While it is possible that one (Ms Clinton) could be worse in different ways, America being destroyed is America being destroyed no matter which one is doing it.

[Count of Monte Fisto]

Bush had phones tapped when calls were made to foreign numbers associated with AlQeada.

If you believe that I have a bridge to sell you. The DHS, TSA, Patriot Act, NDAA, warrantless wiretapping, Fusion centers, militarization and federalization of local police, etc., etc., was always meant to go after the American people. It was never for Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda works for US/NATO. The American taxpayer is arming and financing Al Qaeda to kill Christians in Syria right now. The taxpayer has been arming and financing Al Qaeda since the late 70's. They attacked the Russians, the Serbians, the Iraqis, the Libyans all at the behest of US/NATO. Then Uncle Scam waves around the Al Qaeda boogieman to trick rube Americans into giving up their precious liberties in return for false security. Pretty simple really.

[Rich21IE]

my feelings precisely.

[hinckley buzzard]

Name a single person, Republican OR conservative, who makes such a claim. I very much doubt such a person exists

I see it regularly here, die-hard Bushbots complaining to critics that "he kept us safe so leave him alone."

[Sherman Logan]

They claim Bush did this “single-handedly?”

I very much doubt that.

[kidd]

Al Qaeda works for US/NATO

That's just embarassing. I wish you nut jobs would stay off of this board.

[NonValueAdded]

Ah, they’re still scared to death of her.

[Nervous Tick]

I don’t have to read an article by Ron Fornicator to know that it’s BS.

[Loud Mime]

PIFFLE.

Lousy Article.

[Graewoulf]

” - - - - Liberals hypocritically gave Obama a pass for furthering the same policies they condemned in 2008..... “

Yup. Liberals are incapable of Rational Thought.

[LibLieSlayer]

It is the only thing that a sane person can think.

LLS

[SaraJohnson]

It’s a LIEbertarian. As if conservatives support the Rino/Dino elitist abuse of the constitution!

Libertarian leaders support the strong arm of top down social Marxism so they have more common ground with the lying and intolerant Dinos and Rinos than with the constitution.

[a fool in paradise]

There were plots exposed and thwarted for attacks on LAX, the Brooklyn Bridge, Heathrow Airport, and others. Those we know about.

I wouldn’t say that Bush personally prevented them although the policies in place helped them to be averted.

Meanwhile the Ft. Hood massacre and the Boston Marathon massacre were BOTH preventable terrorist strikes on US soil. WE KNEW and let the Islamonazis walk (one was permitted to hold his officer rank within the US military).

Add to that the Fruit of the Loom bomber over Detroit and other attacks that were thwarted by civilians and the 9-11-2012 attack in Libya and things do not look good on Obama’s watch.

[x]

Annoying column. He's trying to bring both sides together but can only do that by singling somebody else out as worse. Pandering to everybody doesn't please anybody, and those "outsiders" who might be "more extreme" than Bush or Obama might actually be less extreme and less dangerous in some areas. Buchanan or Palin or Nader might be an awful president, but would they really be more likely to abuse the office that the presidents we do elect?

The best comment on Yahoo:

"What if there is a president in your lifetime who is more conservative than Bush? "

Uhhh yeah his name is Ronald Reagan.

Significant fact: Going through hundreds of comments, most of which say that nobody could be worse than Obama, nobody puts in a word for Palin.

[Fledermaus]

Isn’t Ron Fournier just another poofer?